Govt to make e-clusters in 8 cities: Prasad

Sops for companies setting up units in 8 others

Communications and Information Technology (IT) Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday said the government would develop new manufacturing clusters for electronic goods in eight cities as part of its agenda to boost manufacturing.

Prasad said manufacturing was a priority for the government and the sector had the potential to employ 28 million.

The ministry would develop the clusters in Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Maheshwaram, Bhiwadi, Jabalpur, Hosur and Kakinada.

Prasad said the government had identified eight other cities where it would offer subsidies and incentives to companies setting up facilities. The government would extend the modified special incentive subsidy scheme (M-SIPS) to Ahmedabad, Ghaziabad, Vadodara, Gandhinagar, Nagpur, Nashik, Aurangabad and Thane. In July 2012, the government had notified M-SIPS, under which refunds would be given on capital expenditure for new units or for expansion of more than 25 per cent of existing capacity in specific new or existing electronics clusters. The earlier government had allocated Rs 10,000 crore for the scheme.

According to Prasad, the government would promote semiconductor fabrication in India. The earlier government had in February approved the establishment of two semiconductor units. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam have been directed to improve the quality of services. Their performances would be monitored, according to Prasad. The government has decided to spend Rs 5,000 crore for setting up 8,000 mobile towers in the northeast, said Prasad.

On spectrum allocation, Prasad said he was working out a "transparent arrangement for spectrum issues," keeping in view the objectives of consumer welfare and the country's growth in mobile telephony. The government has approved preferential market access guidelines that force it and its agencies to give preference to locally-made electronic and telecom equipment for procurements.

PMA was mootedto incentivise domestic manufacturing in the country, which presently dependson large-scale imports to meet its demand for electronic goods.

The policy isone of the many initiatives taken by the government in the past two years toget an electronics manufacturing ecosystem going. According to governmentestimates, Indiaimports about $40 billion of electronics items.