MAIT appoints Nitin Kunkolienker as president, appoints 15 new members

The Manufacturers' Association of Information Technology (MAIT) on Thursday said Nitin Kunkolienker, director (member on board) of Synegra EMS Ltd, has been named as the body's president for 2020-21.

Kunkolienker has been part of MAIT's management team and has played a key role in shaping the electronics landscape of the country, the Associated said in a statement.

This will be his third term as the body's president.

MAIT's governing council has also re-elected Harish Krishnan, managing director (public affairs and strategic engagements) at Cisco Systems India and SAARC, and Rajkumar Rishi, vice-president and MD (CSB) of Dell India, as vice-president to steer the association, it added.

Also, 15 new governing council members have been appointed for 2020-22.

MAIT is the apex electronics industry body and counts as its members global and domestic electronic IT, mobile, consumer electronics, white goods and industrial electronics companies, among others.

"Nitin Kunkolienker is a thought leader in the electronics manufacturing arena. A man with a mission, and unlimited energy, he is a strong proponent of carrying along all stakeholders in making India's vision of becoming an electronics manufacturing leader a reality," MAIT Chief Executive Officer George Paul said.

He has demonstrated his ability to drive growth and has delivered results for MAIT in the past and will add value and extend MAIT's growth to the new charter, he added.

"I am excited to continue my role at an interesting juncture when it has been a year of turbulent geopolitical developments and policy announcements like PLI (production-linked incentive scheme) that impacted the electronics industry in a big way," Kunkolienker said.

He added that it is a right time to align the government policies with industry requirements to make India a successful manufacturing hub for the electronics and ICT hardware industry.

He also said India is well poised to achieve the USD 400-billion electronics manufacturing target set out in the National Policy on Electronics.

"We are in active discussions with the Government of India to extend PLI to other sub-sectors of electronics including ICT, white goods.

"Just in ICT (information and communication technology), it is globally a USD 360 billion opportunity and there is no reason why India should not garner at least USD 100 billion in this sector alone," he said.