Brighter Days Ahead For Hardware

Information Technology and Communications Minister, Arun Shourie has taken a
commendable step in setting up a task force to focus on the growth of hardware.
What is praiseworthy is that the task force will consist of industry leaders who
have done well for themselves in hardware manufacturing.

The task force was long overdue because the potential for hardware
manufacturing is very huge in the country and remains vastly underutilized. With
software taking centerstage in the recent past, very little importance was given
to hardware. The task force is in a position to contain the damage and suggest
new initiatives to stimulate hardware manufacturing in the country.

Currently, we have only islands of hardware manufacturing and assembling. In
Goa D-Link manufactures networking products using the latest state-of-the-art
machines while Zenith does the assembling of its PCs and servers.

In Pondicherry again there is both, manufacturing and assembling, where
country’s top vendors as well as MNCs including HCL, Wipro, IBM, TVSE,
Numeric, among others have their facilities. In Pune, Philips has been
manufacturing monitors and now LG has committed investments in the city for the
same purpose.

Kobian has been manufacturing motherboards at Silvassa, and in the recent
past, has increased its manufacturing capacity there. Samsung and LG have been
manufacturing monitors in NOIDA for some time now.

But all these manufacturing and assembling activities are only drops in the
ocean. For a country of the geographical size and populace of India, what is
required is mass-scale manufacturing facilities in every state.

What is also required is a champion with a strong political will to make the
country the #1 destination for hardware manufacturing at the global level. Does
Arun Shourie fit the bill to be that champion?

He certainly does. He is not a politician in the true sense of the word. He
does not have a particular vote bank to keep it happy. His vote bank is the
entire nation and so he is well-equipped to take the necessary initiatives to
push for reforms that could give a new direction to hardware manufacturing.

Shourie’s suggestion to industry leaders that they should talk to overseas
firms and convince them that India is capable of establishing world-class
manufacturing facilities is well taken. But what is required on his part is to
make sure that the government does not falter on providing infrastructure
facilities.

What is also required is the speedy customs clearances for import and export
of machinery and products. An intense training of the customs staff to change
their mindset that makes them raise bureaucratic hassles at every step of the
import-export procedures to pro-active action to ensure quickest clearance of
goods is the need of the hour.

The task force appointed by Shourie should work on a war-footing so that it
is ready with its recommendations at the earliest.

These should then be incorporated in the Union Budget for 2004-05 to champion
the cause of hardware manufacturing in the country.

sylvesterl@cmil.com