While addressing the Report Back and Valedictory Session of the CII Global Electronics Summit (organised virtually) on 27th November, 2020, Shri Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary – Ministry of Electronics & IT, Government of India, said attempt should now be made to make India Atmanirbhar in many such segments which are still marked by high import dependence and also to grow India into a global manufacturing hub which could take care of the domestic market and serve exports as well. He highlighted that we need to go beyond import substitution and build our own growth story rather than looking at tariffs and non-tariff barriers to provide the temporary relief.
Shri Sawhney said that India’s growth story in mobile phones assembling is exemplary where the country not only registered growth in terms of rising number of handsets being manufactured (from 6 crores in 2014-2015 to 33 crores in 2019-20) but also moved up the value chain. He said that a new approached has been adopted since unveiling the National Policy on Electronics 2019. In April 2020, MEITY launched 3 new schemes (PLI, SPECS & EMC 2.0) which received overwhelming response from global as well as Indian companies and these schemes have an overall commitments to the tune of ?11 lac crore worth of incremental production (as compared to 2019-20) spread over the next 4-5 years. Out of this, he said that about ?6.5 lakh crore will be accounted for by exports.
He said widening and deepening of the component ecosystem will create room for success in multiple product segments including automotive electronics, health care devices, consumer electronics, strategic electronics, industrial electronics and others. He informed that the Ministry is contemplating to hold another round of offering of components system based PLI soon.
Apart from electronics, Shri Sawhney highlighted that India’s strength in software should be leveraged which calls for adequate availability and skilling of engineers in embedded software systems. India has the finest software companies of the world, he added, along with a growing segment of software products and a range of national-scale platforms (like Aadhar, GST, UPI, National Missions on Health, Agriculture, Education & Justice) which offer a billion-plus market.
The Secretary also highlighted that 2010s marked a period of ‘catch-ups’ for India in many segments and now the time has come to focus on products and devices whose demand is going to shot up in future (like home devices & surveillance cameras). Given a combination of all these factors along with the strengths that India has developed, Mr Sawhney said that 2020s is going to be the decade of India.
Mr Baba Kalyani, Chairman – CII Manufacturing Council & Chairman, Bharat Forge, in his address emphasised that India needs to be prepared for the big technological disruptions that the world is and will be undergoing and said that the country needs to produce thousands of quality engineers in order to achieve its aspirations.
This Report Back Session was preceded by day-long deliberations conducted across 4 thematic sessions which formed the first day of the CII Global Electronics Summit. These included exploring the Design-Led Manufacturing Way to Developing Indigenous Technology; Developing a Semiconductor Fabrication Ecosystem in the Country; Developing Supply Chain Ecosystem in Electronics; and a session on Indian Consumer Durables/White Goods. In addition to thought leaders from various verticals within electronics, these sessions were addressed by Dr Rajendra Kumar, Additional Secretary – Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Ms Sumita Dawra, Additional Secretary –DPIIT and Mr Anil Agrawal, Joint Secretary DPIIT.
The two-day Summit witnessed wider participation and rich deliberations by senior Government officials and senior industry representatives/ CXOs from diverse verticals within electronics.
27 November 2020
New Delhi