Bumper announcements for Indian electronics industry

NEW DELHI, INDIA: During electronica India 2013 and productronica India 2013, Dr. Ajay Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of Communication & Information said: "To strengthen the Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) Industry, we have identified and would keep our focus on four growth areas, viz., mobile handset manufacturing, automotive manufacturing, consumer electronics and LED manufacturing."

Dr. Kumar further ellaborated during the electronica India 2013 and productronica Indian 2013 that under the New Electronics Policy, the government would provide 25 percent subsidy for all investments in electronics. Also, as an incentive to set up electronics manufacturing clusters, development of infrastructure and common facilities for electronics industry, government would bear 50 percent of project cost subject to a ceiling of Rs. 50 crores for every 100 acres.

The government has already received 15 proposals to set up electronics clusters, out of which six have been approved and some of these have already started setting up these clusters. In last six months, the Government has received investment proposals for around 30,000 crores for the industry, he further stressed.

Drawing comparisons with the Chinese manufacturing success story, he said: ‘There is no protection for the domestic manufacturer due to the prevailing ‘zero duty' structure. In this ‘zero duty' regime, Indian manufacturers have to compete immediately with a manufacturers in markets like China, Korea and Japan etc. Unlike other sectors where duties protect the interest of the domestic manufacturer, duties in the electronics sector are virtually non-existent, given the challenges that we face, vis-a-vis infrastructure, high project costs and others."

The Indian government has further taken initiatives to promote the new electronics policy to attract investments from global markets. For this, 30 specific support systems have been created including a Taiwan helpdesk, Israel helpdesk and joint working groups with Japan and several others.

Each one of these initiatives has been created to support the sector and also provide professional advisory to investors from these markets. It is in this context that partnership with MMI gains in relevance and events like electronica India 2013 and productronica India 2013 are really vital.