Domestic firms to get preference in 'Smart India'

In a move to boost the domestic electronic industry, preference will be given to domestically manufactured electronic products in the Smart india initiative, a government official said on Tuesday.

"The preference will come into play in procurements of products related directly to government and domestic manufacturers will contribute to about 50 percent of the purchase," he added.

Speaking at the inauguration of a three-day SmartCard expo here, S.K. Marwaha, director in the department of electronics and information technology (DeitY), said that "though there won't be any discrimination between foreign and Indian companies, but the list of notified items include desktop PCs, tablet PCs, laptops, dot matrix printers, LED products, Smart Cards, biometric access control and authentication devices, biometric finger print sensors, biometric iris sensors and 23 other telecom products".

Marwaha also said that the government has been emphasising on semiconductor fabrication facilities (FAB) in India for various reasons including national and information security, sourcing stability, self-reliance and reducing technology import and increasing exports.

Another factor for semiconductor FAB being made in India is because it helps in energy conservation, alternative sources and platform for scientific innovation and research and development based industries, he added.