March 27, 2015: Going with the government’s flagship ‘Make in India’ programme, the centre has planned to spend a huge sum to develop an ecosystem for electronics manufacturing in the country. “The government plans to invest US $10 billion in two computer chip manufacturing units that will come up soon”, said R S Sharma, secretary, department of electronics and information technology at the first “Indian Electronics Expo” organised by the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council.
He added that India will invest US $400 million to develop a microprocessor unit. As per a report published in Mint in January, India was planning to create its own microprocessor design facility to provide to the increasing demand for electronic devices. “These are part of the initiatives that we are taking to create an ecosystem that lays the focus on high-ended innovation,” said Sharma. “We have created a dedicated fund known as the Electronics Development Fund to leverage the use of venture capital funds to promote more start-ups in the country.”
India imports 65 per cent of the electronic products that are sold in the country, primarily from China. If the state is left unaltered, the country’s electronics import bill may well surpass its oil import bill by 2020.
