Events
& Issues
New Delhi, 27 March 2019
New Electronics Policy
BOOST TO REDUCE IMPORT BILL
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
The march
of technology is taking a new turn. With focus now concentrated on electronics,
the demand for which has been increasing rapidly in most countries, India is no
exception. In tune with oil and gas, a country has to develop its own resources
and or manufacturing to bring down its imports.
Keeping
this in view, the Modi government recently announced National Policy on
Electronics 2019 (NPE2019), which aims to make the country an electronic
manufacturing hub by promoting production of strategic electronics items such
as artificial intelligence and defence electronics. Obviously, this would boost
exports and a target of $400 billion turnover has been fixed by 2025 through
cheaper loan financing rates for loans up to Rs 1000 crore as well as easier
credit access to companies.
The policy
seeks not only to overcome the shortcoming of previous 2012 policy on
electronics but due to the advent of 5G, artificial intelligence and the
Internet of Things, India needed a vision document on how to use these digital
tools for the growth and development of the country and their applications in
areas such as agriculture, defence, health, smart cities and automation.
Today, the
domestic electronics hardware manufacturing industry faces several disability
factors which makes indigenous manufacturing uncompetitive, the reasons being
high cost of power, finance and freight, inadequate infrastructure, lack of
supply chain, high transaction cost inverted tariff structure.
Demand of
electronic hardware has increased significantly but the value addition
continues to be low in the absence of a robust components manufacturing
ecosystem in the country. India has entered into Free Trade Agreements (FTA)
with Thailand, ASEAN, Korea, Japan, etc., wherein import of electronic hardware
from these countries is at preferential duty, lower than normal tariff rate
which makes Indian product uncompetitive
The strong
domestic electronics manufacturing industry demand for a forward looking
framework necessitated the new policy. It further proposes to boost mobile
manufacturing in the country to 1 billion units, worth $190 billion (around Rs
13 lakh crore) of which 600 million units, worth $110 billion (around Rs 7 lakh
crore) is expected to be exported from the country. Value addition in
manufacturing would also be given a thrust in the country so as to become a
global sourcing hub. The policy proposes help setting up cluster for the entire
value chain and employing over 1 crore people directly or otherwise to achieve
a growth rate of 32 per cent.
One can
expect that now the Centre’s efforts to promote local manufacturing through the
‘Make in India’ programme may reap dividends with domestic production of
electronics, moving ahead of imports, which was achieved for the first time way
back in 2016-17. At that time, the government had taken a number of steps to
boost manufacturing of electronics, particularly of smart phones, appliances,
set-top boxes and televisions. A majority of imports in many of these areas
come from China, something India is now trying to counter through fiscal
incentives and other measures.
In the
past three years, there has been growth in local manufacturing as imports are
moderating. The government plans to give a massive push to digital activities
and achieve turnover of $1 trillion by 2022. Manufacturing of electronics is
seen as a major contributor towards meeting the import-export gap. The policy
initiatives of the Modi government have resulted in accelerating local
manufacturing in electronics. Meanwhile, the demand is expected to be between
$171 billion and $228 billion by 2020, almost double than $86.4 billion in
2016-17.
However,
it needs to be pointed out that though there are immense demands for electronic
goods such as mobiles, laptops, pen drives etc., all these are sourced from
China and South Korea. Considering the rapid growth of the internal market, it
is necessary that, to start with, foreign companies that cater to the domestic
market should be forced to open assembling units in the country. This should be
a pre-condition for selling their wares in the internal market.
The
application of electronics in various areas has immense possibilities to stand competition
in the global market. Moreover, internal manufacturing could be geared up for
better efficiency and increased productivity. One may refer here to the newly
manufactured Train 18 where induction of new digital technology has made it a
semi-high speed train, matching global standards. Such applications of
electronics would have to be encouraged in a big way to every nook and corner
of the country.
As is well
known, electronics industry is the world’s largest and fastest growing industry
and is increasingly finding applications in all sectors of the economy.
Everywhere electronics is recognised as a meta-resource. The new policy has
reiterated the high priority being attached to this sector, not just in
hardware manufacturing but being an important pillar of both ‘Make in India’
and ‘Digital India’ programmes of the government. The Electronics System Design
and Manufacturing, a programme of Ministry of Electronics & Information
Technology Industry is of strategic importance as well. India is a signatory to
the Information Technology Agreement (ITA-1) of WTO and FTAs with various
countries/ trading blocs such as ASEAN, Korea and Japan. However, it has to be
understood that the electronics hardware manufacturing sector faces lack of
level playing field vis-à-vis competing nations on account of several
disabilities.
In the
coming years, with India’s emphasis on sophisticated areas such as space
technology, marine sciences, medical electronics, artificial intelligence,
automotive electronics, industrial electronics etc, the growth of electronics
is imperative. The Policy should be an action plan to initiate research and
development in these and related areas and ensure that innovations and opportunities
are made available. It is expected that over the years the import bill on
electronics would steadily come down.
There is
no dearth of scientists and electronic engineers in the country having high
skills and these have to be geared in the right direction. Moreover, with
hiring costs much lower this should be an added advantage. There is no reason
why India cannot be a leading player in the field of electronics, even if it is
behind China or South Korea and the United States.---INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
|