Monday, December 16, 2013: We recently reported how MSME Ministry was to review the public procurement policy. Now department of electronics and information technology (DEITy) has said in a proposal to the Union Cabinet that local sourcing of electronics will be made mandatory for government departments, barring the ministry of defence, and shall be valid for a 10-year period.
According to the proposal seen by ET, the revised version of preferential market access (PFA) policy that makes it compulsory for sourcing sensitive telecom and electronic equipment and technology from domestic equipment makers, has even left out the private sector. It will, however, cover Centrally sponsored schemes and grants made by the Central government.
It is still not clear if this proposal was considered last week at the Cabinet meeting. Reportedly, the government is encouraging local manufacturing, which is expected to push electronics imports to reach $300 billion by 2020, which will exceed the oil imports by that time.
The proposal also talks about creating National Planning and Monitoring Council for Electronic Products that will comprise seven representatives from DoT, IT, expenditure, supplies and industrial policy and promotion (DIPP).
A 10-year roadmap will be designed by the panel for electronic products that have been identified for notification under the policy, create compliance requirement, redressal system and approve notifications from different ministries along with closely monitoring the implementation of the policy, ET added.
