Manufacturing

Commercial LPG will be distributed through defined priority tiers, so non-priority commercial users will face constrained access. State authorities will control allocations and eligibility verification for firms seeking the additional supply.

Tender officials can no longer use land-border registration as a disqualifier for the 21 exempted items, removing a procedural barrier for neighbouring-country firms. Procurement decisions will shift toward technical evaluation and widen access to advanced industrial inputs not available in required domestic quantities.

The United Kingdom government intervention creates a temporary domestic CO2 source to relieve pressure on commercial supply chains and reduce immediate shortfall risk for industrial users. It signals a willingness to use emergency public funding to secure critical gas supplies amid geopolitically driven disruptions.

Leonardo now owns 100% of IDV Group and the vehicle-manufacturing capabilities spun out of Iveco. The company must integrate its electronics, command-and-control, electro-optics and turret systems with the acquired tracked and wheeled platforms. This requires consolidating operations across six manufacturing sites, seven R&D centres, and managing about 2,000 employees and 12 commercial offices.

The entity will be incorporated in India as a private limited company subject to regulatory approvals and customary conditions. Each partner will hold equal equity and nominate three directors to a six-member board. A five-year lock-in restricts transfer of shares except under specified conditions such as transfers to non-competing affiliates. The JV will start with an initial paid-up capital of ₹10 lakh, with provisions to scale up to ₹94 crore. Bosch will lead engineering and product development while Tata Autocomp will handle operations, procurement, and administrative functions; the definitive agreement is expected to be executed on March 23.

Duties on steel volumes outside established quotas will be set at 50%. From July, quotas on imports of many overseas steel products will be reduced by 60%. The policy establishes a target that 50% of steel used in the UK be produced domestically, with 50% of that domestic production to be located in Wales. The package is presented as a £2.5bn strategy aimed at increasing domestic production by 30%.

The Cabinet approved the BHAVYA scheme on March 18, 2026 with funding of ₹33,660 crore. The scheme targets development of 100 plug‑and‑play industrial parks across the country. Parks will range in size from 100 to 1,000 acres. Financial support is set at up to ₹1 crore per acre and the scheme is expected to generate about 15 lakh direct jobs.

Bajaj Auto is exploring shifting a portion of its EV manufacturing expansion to its Pantnagar facility in Rudrapur, Uttarakhand. The company is considering directing new EV investments to states offering clearer policy support and incentives. The dispute centers on roughly ₹75 crore in unpaid subsidies and restrictions on new auto-rickshaw permits. Through Chetak Technology Ltd, Bajaj Auto has invested around ₹750 crore in its Akurdi facility in Pune, which serves as the Chetak electric scooter manufacturing and R&D hub.

Kerala has more than 1,000 micro, small and medium plastic processing units, with an estimated 20–25% currently not operating due to capital shortages. Polymer producers raised prices in five rounds between March 1–11, producing cumulative hikes of about 59%. Plastic processors responded by increasing product prices by nearly 50%. Both private and public sector polymer manufacturers raised prices by similar margins regardless of feedstock. Packing-material costs were reported up 25–50%, and most footwear soles were identified as polyethylene-based.

ION Storage Systems shipped sample Cornerstone cells in August 2025 to partners in industrial equipment, consumer electronics, and automotive sectors. A customer completed performance qualification by meeting strict performance standards set by that commercial partner. This is the first instance of a U.S. solid‑state battery company achieving customer performance validation. The qualification moves the technology beyond laboratory testing into real‑world customer evaluation. The company plans production to start in Maryland.

The $115 million project added approximately 26,000 square feet to the Redstone missile integration facility in Huntsville. Upgraded infrastructure allows the site to process and deliver missiles more than 50 percent faster than before. The facility assembles and integrates multiple missile systems, including multiple versions of the Standard Missile family. Raytheon employs over 2,200 people across Alabama and announced five framework agreements with the U.S. Department of War covering production at Tucson, Huntsville, and Andover.

The memorandum establishes a framework to examine exploration, mining, beneficiation, processing, and downstream applications for the Ambadungar rare-earth deposit. The collaboration includes structured knowledge exchange and technical evaluation between the two firms. The scope targets development of an integrated rare-earth value chain in Gujarat. The roadmap references resource utilisation, indigenous processing capability development, and pilot-stage technology validation for Ambadungar.