Tuesday, June 10, 2014: Newly appointed Minister for Communications and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad has reiterated that telecom and electronics manufacturing are high on the Minister’s to-do agenda in the first 100 days of the BJP-led NDA governance at the centre. Prasad is now looking to breath fresh lease of life in proposals such as the preferential manufacturing access that could not see the light of day during the UPA’s rule.
“The Minister met multinational mobile phone companies recently and asked them to give a list of things which the new Government can do to encourage them to set up factories in India,” Business Line quoted a top government functionary as saying. Evidently, Prasad is looking for ways on how local manufacturing can be perceived in the country. The Congress-led UPA government had notably tried to bring in a number of crucial policies to attract investments in the manufacturing sector, but all in vain. Incentives like those attracting players to set up semiconductor fabrication units in the country did not attract many new investors. Moreover, companies like Nokia were forced in to shifting most of its manufacturing base from the Sriperumbudur factory near Chennai to other countries owing to a tax notice levied on the company.
However, all this is soon going to change for good. “Nokia confirms that it has started to meet high-level ministers of the new government. We welcome the opportunity to engage with the new government on matters important to the industry. We remain committed to getting the asset freeze on the Chennai facility lifted and to find an amicable resolution to the current tax disputes.” a Nokia spokesperson was quoted by Business Line as saying.
