Indians are entrepreneurs by temperament: Ravi Shankar Prasad

NEW DELHI: In pursuit of a Digital India, the country has embarked on a focused journey to bring digital transformation in the lives of all its citizens. Digital India is a program to transform the country into an empowered society and a knowledge economy by leveraging technology to enable this transformation.

CII organized the seminar on IT and Electronics in partnership with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Government of India on 15 February 2016 at the Make in India Centre in Mumbai.

"Indians were entrepreneurs by temperament and good consumers as well. They naturally watch, observe, absorb and will manufacture technology – which is why the government today is encouraging robust investment schemes through Make in India," said  said Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Communications and Information Technology.

He further added that Make in India included making for India and receiving all incentives for Indian Manufacturers and Making in India for Exports and receiving as many incentives for all exporting companies. He pointed out various policy clearances in the communication sector that have been enabled with the objective to help build a friendly and conducive environment for electronics manufacturing,"

The Minister highlighted four segments of Consumer Electronics, Automobile, Defense and Medical Electronics where he encouraged greater innovation and investment indicating a massive explosion of TV + Radio in the years to come. India provides a very exciting market opportunity in terms of sheer business proposition with an anticipated turnover of $400 billion by 2020 in Electronics Manufacturing and $250 billion turnover in telecommunications. He mentioned the government’s efforts to reinforce the entire digital network by connecting 25,0000 Indian villages with Optical Fibre. He encouraged the Industry to take steps forward and promised the government’s synergized support.

Department of Technologies (DoT) Secretary JS Deepak reflected on the foundational objective behind the Make In India campaign that began in 2014 as strengthening India’s manufacturing sector in order to develop a balance between imports and exports," said JS Deepak, Secretary , Department of Technologies.

He mentioned that a host of policy initiatives and reforms have been underway to enable and facilitate this vision. For instance FDI in Defense makes it easier for the Private sector companies to partner in defense procurement.

He highlighted the ITA (Information Technology Agreement) advantage where by choosing to not be a signatory, India enjoys protection from Imports and Indian IT and Telecom Manufacturers can enjoy generous subsidy and incentive measures.

He also mentioned the huge design capacities that India has to offer in product development. He concluded that Electronic design and manufacturing is an idea whose time has come and Make in India will seek to catalyse the overall IT/Electronic Manufacturing Ecosystem.

"The need for Indigenous Research in incubation Centres to be recognized, promoted and encouraged. She suggested that such research must find its market and a possible way to this would be to showcase & exhibit research in IT & Electronics to the world. She concluded with the encouragement to beneficial partnerships that facilitate and accelerate the vision of Make in India," said Aruna Sharma, Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology.

"Electronics was the ubiquitous underpinning of much of what we do and depend upon in our daily lives. He emphasized that Make in India should by no means be limited to manufacturing. According to Dr Karnik, ease in government procurement which is smooth, quick and without any hassles, where contracts/terms and payments are made easily, will provide a much needed boost and spur to MII. He mentioned the need for capacity building at the rudimentary level as well as at the highest academic levels – seeing it as a critical component where the Industry can provide adequate feedbacks which could lead to specialized trainings that are of value to the Industry," said Dr Kiran Karnik , Chairman, CII National Committee Telecom and Broadband.