India must become electronics

New Delhi, Dec 12 (UNI) India needs to become the electronics and hardware manufacturing hub to gain a competitive edge in the global market, said Dr V Krishnamurthy, Chairman National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC), at a business meeting of the Indo-US ICT Working Group today.

The theme, 'Connect and Catalyse: Forging Indo-Us Partnerships', organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) focussed on Electronics IT hardware manufacturing and exploiting ICT for development.

''While India has shown fantastic growth in software capabilities, it has performed poorly in hardware manufacturing.

Take the roduction of machine tools, in which India was 80 per cent reliant 20 years ago and now imports 80 per cent of its machine tools. In fact, manufacturing industry contributes only 17 per cent of the GDP,'' said Dr Krishnamurthy.

However, it is the growth in the Electronics and Hardware manufacturing sector that will assure balanced, inclusive growth and even the rural poor benefit, he said.

During the two-day talks, the group plans to launch three industry subgroups focusing on, information technology, telecommunications and media and broadcasting.

Besides focus on Electronics and IT Hardware Manufacturing, discussions will also take place on forging ICT partnerships.

This was the second meeting of the Indo-US ICT Working Group since December 2005, that aims to maximise the development of the ICT sector.

The Working Group is co-chaired by the US State Department's Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy Ambassador David Gross and Additional Secretary M Madhavan Nambiar of the Department of Information Technology from India.

Mr Gross assured that relationship between the two countries has deepened and is mutually beneficial.

''These are special times for Indo-US relations. I notice a sea change today -- India is a place where other countries come to manufacture,'' he said.

The promise that India holds as a hardware manufacturing destination was reiterated by Mr Nambiar. ''We already have a proposal on an electronics manufacturing policy underway. Several foreign brands - Nokia, Siemens, Motorola - have set up manufacturing units here,'' he said.

One of the key propellers to the growth of manufacturing in the future will be the Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Mr Deepak Puri, Chairman CII National Committee on Electronics, Hardware and Peripherals and Managing Director - Moser Baer India Ltd, said the SEZs will eventually help India showcase its manufacturing prowess.

''US can collaborate with us on R and D and e-governance,'' said Mr Nambiar. He said the business-to-business interfaces like the one conducted by the working group is the key to robust growth and a good beginning.

The Indo-US ICT working group was created with a focus on enhancing bilateral trade and business interaction between India and the US in the IT and Telecommunications sector, which was announced in July 2005 by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W Bush.

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