Plastic and plastic-based products have grown into an essential across the globe. The Indian plastics industry started in 1957 with the production of polystyrene. After that, significant progress has been made, and the industry has developed and expanded rapidly. The industry extends the country's growth and hosts more than 2,000 exporters. 

Key Drivers of the Indian Plastic Industry-

• Indigenization of mechanisms by Key OEMs from areas like Automobile & Consumer Electronics growing expectation on growth capability of domestic.
• Make in India Initiative.
• Availability of experienced Skilled people, and yet in smaller numbers.
• Rising exports towards smaller manufacturing runs and modified products.

The Indian plastic industry employs about 4 million people and includes more than 30,000 processing units, 85-90% of which are small and medium-sized enterprises. India is rising as a manufacturing hub and the trades are also rising. To export the product to the international market, the packaging standard is being lifted which calls for adopting better packaging methods, materials, and pieces of machinery to make sure that the quality of the end product and the visual application is top-notch. The higher productivity of the plastic industry helps India stands above 6% GDP growth. The growth sectors of this industry are defense, healthcare, agriculture, automobile production, consumer goods, and solar energy. The government spending on new joint projects and augmented research and development, import duty on steel screws and plastic builder wares increased to 15%. The Indian government aims to achieve the global standard.

Through joint ventures and completely owned firms, some of the global brands from China, the US, Europe, and Japan have a manufacturing presence in India. The Indian manufacturers are manufacturing and trade to 50 countries across the globe. Trades stand at USD 150 million and rising at 12%. The Industry's key strength is the availability of raw materials in the country. Therefore, Indian plastic processors don’t have to rest on imports. These raw materials include low-density polyethylene, polypropylene, and PVC are manufactured locally. The Indian plastic industry is not only delivering polymer products but as well leading the rank in providing advanced polymer products across the globe.  

 Foreign Direct Investment 

• In FY 2020, the plastic and linoleum trade from India raised to $7.55 billion. From April 2019 to January 2020, the export of plastic is raised by $7.05 billion with the highest contribution from plastic raw material at $2.91 billion, plates, sheets, and films at $1.22 billion, and packing materials at $722.47 million.
• In October 2020, the Indian plastic industry trade plastic worth $813 million, and the trade from April 2020 to October 2020 was $5.58 billion. From April 2020 to November 2020, the industry trade plastic and linoleum worth $4.90 billion.
• The Indian plastic industry offers excellent potential in terms of capacity, infrastructure, and skilled manpower. The Indian plastic industry currently focuses on packaging accounts for the largest depletion of plastic in India, at 24% of total consumption. 
• In January 2011, India’s Corporate Affairs Minister (ICAM) indicated that India was set to lift foreign direct investment (FDI) limitations for supermarket giants such for instance Tesco, and Walmart.

Recent Development in Indian Plastic Industry

• The Indian Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals has permitted 10 plastic parks in India, the 6 parks that have been given final permits are in the states includes Tamil Nadu (1 no.), Assam (1 no.), Odisha (1 no.), Jharkhand (1 no.), and Madhya Pradesh (2 nos.), These plastic parks will support to attain environmentally supportable growth and surge employment.