Govt considers IT hardware manufacturing policy

NEW DELHI

JANUARY 16, 2007

Dayanidhi Maran, Minister of Communications & Information Technology has
said that soon the Government will come out with a special package of incentives
establishing Fabs in India and the Government is also considering a proposal for
Electronics and IT Hardware Manufacturing Policy. The policy will aim at
rationalization of tariff structure on capital goods, inputs, unification of
manufacturing for domestic market and exports, registration of international
patents, transfer of state-of-the-art technology (TOT) and Research &
Development. Maran said this while inaugurating the Elitex 2007, an
Exhibition-cum-Seminar, being held under the aegis of the Department of
Information Technology.

Speaking on the occasion Maran said that Year 2007, being the Year of
Broadband in India, he wanted to bring down the cost to the consumer and that
could happen only if the domestic traffic is kept within the country. For this
he urged the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) to make all efforts to
make the domestic Internet traffic a viable proposition for content providers,
network operators and consumers. The Minister further said that with a large
share of the global IT/off-shored IT enabled services market, India has been
widely acknowledged as the emerging services-hub of the world. This has been
possible due to the availability of skilled manpower, he said. The Indian
ITES-BPO industry has been on a high growth path and has clocked revenues of US$
6.3 billion during last year. Over the next five years, domestic spending on
outsourced IT services is projected to more than from Rs 10,300 crore in 2004 to
over Rs 23,800 crore in 2009. The liberalization of Indian economic policy,
de-regulation of key sectors and progressive moves towards further integrating
India with the global economy has been a key driver of increased IT adoption in
the country.

Speaking on the occasion Dr V Krishnamurthy, Chairman, National Manufacturing
Competitive Council (NMCC) in his keynote address has emphasised the need for
greater use of ICT (Information Communication technology) in all sectors for a
balanced growth of Indian economy. He said that there is an urgent need to
strengthen the manufacturing base of IT hardware and necessary steps should be
taken in this regard. India cannot sustain the growth in ICT sector without
developing the hardware manufacturing base in the country.

He further said that there should be a balanced growth between the
industrial, services and agricultural sectors and imbalance should be minimized
by use of ICT in all aspects of economic development. He further added that NMCC
in collaboration with the Microsoft has launched a program for competitive
enhancement of small and medium industries. He said that hardware industry has
not kept pace with the progress made by the software sector and still there is a
dependence on the imported inputs. He said that the Government has supportive
policies in order to provide right impetus for development of hardware in the
country.