Union Minister Alphons Kannanthanam exhorted the IT and electronics industry to replicate the “dramatic” growth of domestic mobile manufacturing in consumer electronics sector as well.
According to media reports, the minister, speaking at an Assocham event, said under the Digital India programme, the government has taken a series of measures to promote electronics manufacturing to position the country as a production hub for electronics goods.
The turnover in mobile manufacturing has shown “a dramatic improvement”, he said adding that production in consumer electronics has however not increased at the same pace. The information security requirements of the digital society will throw up the need for 5,00,000 cyber security experts over the next three years, the minister said citing industry estimates.
Commenting on iPhone maker Apple’s proposal for setting up manufacturing unit in India, the minister said that the government would like Apple to come in India for setting up manufacturing unit and they are examining Apple’s proposal.
He further asked the industry to share information on cyber security breaches, as pooling of information will enable better handling of such incidents. Kannanthanam said Computer Emergency Response Teams or CERT (an expert group that handles computer security incidents) are also being established for sectors like telecom, finance and power as well as states like Kerala and Maharashtra.
The minister also expressed disappointment over the pace of digitisation in healthcare sector citing a particular case of a large hospital not maintaining digital health records, including the diagnosis and medicines being prescribed for patients who come for consultation. Additional Secretary in Ministry of Electronics and IT, Ajay Kumar said the government is working on a new policy, which will further spur electronics manufacturing. He said a cyber security product procurement policy to give preference to domestic industry is also in the offing.
