The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has constituted a nine-member team with the goal to make India a “product developer and manufacturing nation,” a news report said on March 27. The panel, which includes some of the veterans from the Indian electronics industry, has reportedly been given a period of two months to submit its recommendations.
The panel will be headed by MeitY additional secretary Bhuvnesh Kumar, while Joint secretary (electronics) Amitesh Kumar Sinha will serve as its member convenor. Indian electronic industry veterans, including HCL founder Ajay Chowdhary, Dixon Technologies chief Sunil Vachani, Lava International chairman Hari Om Rai, and Boat Lifestyle co-founder Aman Gupta, among others, are reportedly part of the team.
Quoting sources, the news report said that “the objective will be to increase electronics manufacturing with higher value addition”. The task force will focus on boosting local electronics manufacturing by looking beyond the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. An important government initiative launched during the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, the Rs 36,000-crore PLI scheme has attracted major global manufacturers, including Apple suppliers Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron, and South Korean gadgets’ giant Samsung. The establishment of the task force to add value to electronics making comes at a time when India is being seen as an alternative to the manufacturing hubs of China and Vietnam.
