Niti Aayog may discuss issues facing electronics sector on Mon

The premier policy body Niti Aayog is likely to take up issues faced by the electronics industry with officials from ministries of telecom, IT, commerce and finance on Monday in an attempt to fast-track its growth.
This is part of efforts by the government's think-tank to iron out those issues and brainstorm with stakeholders -- ministries and the industry -- on exploring ways to attract investments and boosting local manufacturing of electronic items.
Bolstering domestic electronics manufacturing and attracting FDI are one of the core components of the government's ambitious Make in India programme.
"Niti Aayog has called a meeting of officials from the stakeholder ministries like telecom, IT, commerce and finance to deliberate on issues and concerns that have been raised by the industry in its discussions with the Aayog," sources said.

Besides, the officials will also deliberate on ways to boost local manufacturing in electronics and attract more FDI, they added.
The move assumes significance as India -- counted among the fastest growing markets for smartphones, TVs as well as other electronic items -- imports products and components worth over USD 100 billion, which is expected to jump four-fold to USD 400 billion by 2020.

"India stands at a crucial juncture in terms of growth electronics is seeing. Increasing convergence of information, communication and entertainment has given a new impetus to demand for such hardware. Aayog through the meeting will try to identify core areas that need renewed vigour," they said.

As per government and industry estimates, electronics has the potential to generate around 28 million jobs and raise as much as USD 100 billion in investments to set up semiconductor units, component manufacturing facilities, assembly plants, logistics hubs in the next decade.
Confirming the development, a senior government official said the meeting will discuss various initiatives that are being offered by the government as well as those which are needed to boost the sector.
"The meeting will also cover issues such as reviewing tax incentives and policy measures. Deliberations on providing more incentives like viability gap funding, regulatory clearances and ease of doing business will also come up," he added.

A senior Communications and IT Ministry official said these discussions will help Aayog chalk out a list of initiatives and policy measure after they are throughly discussed, which will then be submitted to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
"Once everything is finalised, PMO will vet it and then this can be included in the Budget for the 2016-17 fiscal or the government can modify or create a new programme that will target electronic manufacturing and attract investments," the official added.