Hailing the Andhra Pradesh government’s newly unveiled Electronics Hardware Policy as “path breaking”, trade and industry body Assocham has mooted the creation of a special task force to put the implementation of the policy on the fast track, says a Times of India report.
“The policy is timely looking at the potential for growth of electronics and computer hardware industry in the country. But the timely implementation of the policy alone will bring in the desired results,” Assocham’s southern regional council chairman Ravindra Sannareddy said while urging AP chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy to constitute a special task force to oversee implementation of the policy Andhra Pradesh, which had a Rs 65 billion turnover electronics hardware industry in 2009-10 comprising over 300 units, unveiled a separate Electronics Hardware Policy 2012-17 on the lines of its IT policy at the just concluded Advantage AP 2012 IT summit.
According to Sannareddy, the proposal to create hardware manufacturing clusters would go a long way in strengthening the electronic hardware sector in the country. “The move will result in a spurt of investments in the state making it the biggest contributor to the national electronic industry. This will also expand domestic production of electronic products reducing dependence on imports,” he said.
Welcoming the decision to provide incentives to hardware companies for design, assembling, testing and packaging plants, he said it would spawn fresh ideas for design and production of newer electronic products. On the decision to convert existing clusters such as Fab City and Aeronautical SEZ into Centres of Excellence and create four hubs around Hyderabad consisting of 300 acres of multi-product electronic SEZs, Sannareddy said the step would ensure optimum utilisation of scarce land resources.
