Electronics, IT Hardware manufacturing policy soon: PM

CHENNAI: Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh announced that the Government would soon come forward with an Electronics/ IT Hardware Manufacturing Policy to make the industry more competitive.

Inaugurating Flextronics Industrial Park in Sriperumbudur, the Prime Minister assured that the Government would follow a forward-looking policy regime that would continue to encourage this sector and promote new investment, create new employment and generate new business opportunities.

He announced that the Government would reduce tariffs on 217 IT items to 0% as agreed at the WTO. Stressing the importance of developing semiconductor fabrication capabilities, Dr. Singh said that the Government would announce a policy to support the semiconductor industry soon.

Referring to the possible shortage of skilled manpower as the IT and electronics sectors grow rapidly, the Prime Minister said that a Mission on Vocational Education would be set up to improve the skill base of our people and the higher education system would be expanded to provide more and better quality technical graduates for industry.

Highlighting the boom in the telecom sector, Dr Singh said "The telecom sector in our country is really booming and I am happy to learn that we will achieve the target of 500 million telephones, 40 million Internet users and 20 million broadband users by 2010."

A study commissioned by the Indian Semiconductor Association has indicated that Indian electronics/ IT market will grow from US $ 28 billion in 2005 to US $ 363 billion by 2015. A major part of this will be hardware including semiconductor chips. It is essential for us to develop semiconductor fabrication capabilities to support this sector’s growth. We will be announcing a policy soon for the support of the semiconductor industry, Dr Singh pointed.

Prime Minister also said that "Electronics, IT and Telecommunication hardware manufacturing have a great potential in India. We have all seen impressive growth in the demand for mobile phones," adding that "Mobile phones today are not a luxury. They are a necessity, especially in rural areas. Mobile telephony has increased the incomes of farmers, petty traders, urban and rural service providers and have increased the productivity of white collar employees. As we improve mobile infrastructure in rural areas, we will see a greater penetration of mobile telecom services there."

© CIOL Bureau