Industry experts and policy makers recently called for a national electronics strategy to develop laboratory to fabrication clusters across the country and build a vibrant ecosystem for the 65 billion dollar market.
High volume sourcing of components and final products has hampered the growth of electronics manufacturing base in recent years, said R. Chandrashekhar, secretary at the ministry of communications and information technology while addressing a national conference organised by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham).
“Growth trends show the demand for electronic products to cross 400 billion dollars by 2020,” he said. “A national strategy has to be formulated through discussions with key stakeholders including existing manufacturers and members of the MSME sector, industry associations, respective government departments and regulatory bodies.”
This is important as excessive dependence on imports could involve national security issues in future. Chandrashekhar called for creating industrial clusters to meet the need for fostering innovation and manufacturing in electronics sector.
Ajay Shankar, member secretary at the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, said domestic manufacturing is essential to sustain GDP growth momentum and generate mass employment.
“There is a growing consensus that electronics industry needs a special emphasis. It will encourage value generation, revenue generation and employment generation,” he said adding practical and implementable solutions should be worked out.
Assocham secretary general D.S. Rawat called for establishing centres of excellence for incentivising collaborative research and development initiatives between MSMEs and MNCs.
Absence of feeder industries is the biggest hurdle for electronics manufacturers to set operations, he said, “The government needs to take quick steps to start developing an ecosystem which will attract manufacturing investments.”
