Govt to hold global tech brass meet to make India electronic export hub

New Delhi: In a major move aimed at turning India into an export hub of electronic manufacturing, the government is set to hold a confidence-building measure meeting with industry bigwigs.

While talking to Millennium Post, IT Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney said that the country has taken a giant leap to be a global electronics manufacturer as domestic manufacturing has grown from $ 29 billion in 2014-15 to $70 billion in 2018-19.

It's for the time that the government is going to hold direct dialogue with CEOs of over 50 global technology companies, including Apple, Samsung, Cisco, Vivo, etc, after the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi came into power, the IT Secretary said, adding that the IT Ministry itself has received over $15 billion worth of investment proposals under its flagship investment scheme.

Elaborating about the global meet, Sawhney said, "As per the schedule, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad would hold the round table discussion on Monday. At the meeting, global leaders would brainstorm about the challenges being faced by the industry, opportunities and expectations of the industry from the government to make Indian electronics manufacturing sector grows faster."

"Number of factors already make India an attractive destination for electronics manufacturing. There is a huge talent pool, cost competitiveness and all major brands are already here. The value addition being done in India for feature phones have now increased to 25 per cent from 11 per cent earlier and in smartphones, it is now 18 per cent," he said.

As India has emerged as the second-largest manufacturer of mobile handsets in the world and one of the world's largest mobile manufacturing facility is based in India, the industry has also helped in employment generation for over 20 lakh persons across the country, the Secretary said.