Strengthen India's manufacturing base in electronics: Kamal Nath

New Delhi, Nov 3 (UNI) Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath today called for strengthening India's manufacturing base in electronics, so that the country could excel in both electronics hardware and software sectors, while emphasising the importance of the sector as a thrust area for India.

Mr Kamal Nath indicated that the government was considering a bigger package of fiscal and other incentives for the electronics and IT hardware manufacturing sector, to make the industry globally competitive, to attract more FDI in the industry, to bring down the prices of the end products, to reduce production cost, to step up volumes to take advantage of economies and efficiencies of scale, to increase the demand, to compensate for disabilities until the basic infrastructure constraints are removed and to move towards much lower taxation levels in the next 3-5 years.

The Consumer Electronic Sector, which is the main stay of the Indian electronics industry, contributes about 35 per cent of the total electronic hardware production in India while colour TVs are the largest contributor to this sector. This Sector is also currently undergoing technological revolution.

Addressing the 27th annual function of the Consumer Electronics and TV Manufacturers Association (CETMA) here this evening, the Minister said, ''In view of the special characteristics of Electronics/IT Hardware sector, the challenge posed by the WTO stipulation for elimination of duties in this segment and India entering into FTAs/PTAs with a number of countries/trading blocks, this sector needs a special sectoral treatment rather than being governed by general policy framework. As a result of the efforts taken by the Department, India has become a major destination for FDI investments in Information Communication Technology Sector.'' The Indian electronic sector faces stiff challenges in the international market, as it has to overcome infrastructural constraints leading to high operational costs. There is also a need for forward and backward integration of hardware and software sectors to take advantage of India's burgeoning software sector, the Minister stressed, adding that India had been meeting more than half of its electronics hardware requirements through imports.

He also mentioned that the Electronics Hardware Technology Parks (EHTP) and the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) were tailored to boost manufacturing in the country.

''SEZ policy provides appropriate environment for setting up of Information Technology/Information Technology Enabled Services SEZ including SEZs for Electronics Hardware manufacturing,'' he added.

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