At a round table discussion, ASSOCHAM stressed that the National Policy on Electronics will go a long way in mitigating the disability costs in ICTE manufacturing
By Srabani Sen
To achieve an investment of US$ 100 billion, the government is open to amendments in the National Policy on Electronics (NPE) 2013, says Dr Ajay Kumar, joint secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communication & Information. NPE was set up with the aim to create employment for 28 million people, enhance exports from US$ 8 billion to US$ 80 billion, and grow the chip embedded software industry by 2020.
Inaugurating the ASSOCHAM round table discussion on the ‘Electronics Manufacturing Industry’ on January 24, 2013, in New Delhi, Dr Ajay Kumar said that the Cabinet had approved the provision of digital addressable systems (DAS) throughout the country by December 2014. This projects a market for 200 million set-top boxes in the next three to five years.
ASSOCHAM strongly believes that the National Policy on Electronics, 2012, will go a long way in mitigating the disability costs in ICTE manufacturing. Speaking at the round table discussion, Anirudh Dhoot, chairman, ASSOCHAM National Council on Electronics, and director, Videocon Industries Ltd, said, “The policy would definitely help in making the industry more competitive, attract new investments, generate employment, create additional revenue streams and lead to lesser dependence on imports.”
Commenting on the Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMCs) policy, Dhoot said that companies can avail potential advantages like the increased productivity of companies in the cluster, an increased level of innovation and a reduction of costs enabled through shared resources.
ASSOCHAM has been campaigning to support EMCs. “The cluster concept imparts certain inherent natural manufacturing advantages of the agglomeration and scale, bringing together the required infrastructure, skills, and supporting institutions,” Dhoot added.
J V Ramamurthy, co-chairman, ASSOCHAM National Council on Electronics, and president & chief operating officer, HCL Infosystems Ltd, said that countries with robust ICTE manufacturing bases, such as China, Korea, Taiwan, etc, have systematically built excellent physical infrastructure with user friendly and simple policy frameworks and approval mechanisms. The low cost of funds, reasonable tax rates and tremendous government support has encouraged these countries’ growth overseas.
Tamaki Tsukada, Minister of Economics, Embassy of Japan, informed that companies from Japan are in talks with interested states and SEZ developers to form a ‘Japanese industrial cluster’ in India.
