Karnataka IT Minister Priyank Kharge says the Centre is shooting itself in the foot by not being flexible enough when it comes to framing policies for attracting high-end electronics manufacturers such as Apple to the country.
The minister mentioned that ‘Make in India’ plan needs strong policies in place to work but the government needs to first ensure that an ecosystem is built in the country. For this, it should relax the local component sourcing norms for manufacturers for at least the first few years.
The Centre recently turned down Apple’s demands for long-term tax sops to turn India into a hub for manufacturing its iPhones. Apple, which plans to produce its iPhone SE smartphones in Bengaluru later this year, had sought tax incentives for 15 years to make the country a sourcing hub for exports.
Kharge says instead of framing policy for individual companies, the government should relax norms for the entire high-end electronics manufacturing sector which will give it a huge boost.
Kharge further commenetd that in order to change the perception of India not being a manufacturing destination, is why India needs to do this. He urged not to stick to Apple alone. Instead he suggested that India can deep dive into something new like facilitating high-end defence electronics manufacturing.
He further advised that instead of luring manufacturers to India with incentives, the Centre should facilitate them to make products locally since India already has a large skilled workforce and a huge population that will drive consumption, making it a haven for global companies in the near future.
By Baishakhi Dutta
