Govt ups investment goal in electronics sector to Rs 25,000 cr

The Government has raised its investment target in the electronics sector to $5 billion for this fiscal, a top Department of Information Technology official said today. "We have received investment proposals upwards of $1 billion so far and have set a target of $5 billion for this fiscal," Department of Information Technology (DEITY) Secretary J Satyanarayana said at a Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) event here. The demand for electronics hardware in India is growing exponentially and is projected to increase to $400 billion by 2020. This provides a huge opportunity for the country to become an Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) hub to meet its domestic requirements, he added. Speaking at the India ESDM conclave, Satyanarayana said the government is taking several initiatives for the growth of ESDM sector in the country. "We have a target of setting up 10 electronic manufacturing clusters (EMCs) in the country with six solid proposals ready, which we hope to clear very soon," he added. Andhra Pradesh government is setting up 3 EMCs -- two near Hyderabad and one near Vishakhapatnam. That apart, another EMC is planned in Tamil Nadu near Hosur. Besides, the Cabinet has also passed a proposal for setting up of an IT Investment Region (ITIR) near Bangalore with 10,000 acres of land, which will entail an investment of about Rs 6,500 crore. The state government has already notified 2,072 acres of land for development under Phase-I, he said. "There are proposals for setting up ITIRs in Bhubneswar and Hyderabad in the pipeline, which will be approved in 2-3 months and will take another 6-8 months to develop," he said. Last month, the government received 12 proposals for investment worth Rs 4,500 crore for manufacturing facilities in ESDM in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, which is expected to provide employment to about 40,000 people. Besides, it has 6 proposals for setting up Greenfield EMCs in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, that are in advanced stages of consideration. The government has also notified 12 Brownfield clusters in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Source: PTI