Strategic Electronics Summit to focus on Make in India, indigenisation

Make in India Programme for defence industries, indigenisation, role of academia and electronic SME's Clusters, strategic partners for defence and aerospace programmes are some key areas of focus at the forthcoming seventh Strategic Electronics Summit (SES).

Scheduled from July 7-8, the even organised by the Electronic Industries Association of India (ELCINA) at Bangalore International Exhibion Centre (BIEC) on the outskirts of the Karnataka capital city would be inaugurated by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.

"SES is a timely initiative as government has made its intention amply clear to enhance domestic value addition in this sector by active participation and investments by foreign as well as domestic companies," said ELCINA President Vikram Desai on Thursday at the curtainraiser event.

According to ELCINA's former Presidnet Subhash Goyal, demand for electronics in India was expected to rise to $400 billion by 2020 while the current electronics manufacturing growth rate in India can only cater to $100 billion worth of demand.

"Although the government attaches high priority to electronics and IT hardware manufacturing, its efforts have not led to a substantial impact owing to various policy restrictions," said Goyal.

ELCINA Secretary General Rajoo Goyal said the industry was plagued by power shortage, high cost of finance, poor logistics and infrastructure among others, which ELCINA aims bridge by developing electronic manufacturing clusters and rectifying policy problems.

"Strengthening the presently weak components manufacturing base and encouraging targeted and proactive R&D are two other key challenges that need to be addressed," said Rajoo Goyal.

Sessions at SES would be chaired by current and former dignitaries from the Ministry of Defence, Department of Electronics, DRDO, DEAL, HAL, BEL, C-DOT and IIT - Madras.

Annual SES focuses on SMEs and acts as a platform to convene government, defence organisations, private and public sector companies to explore roles in growing India's defence capability.

Established in 1967, ELCINA promotes the manufacture of electronic components, industrial/professional electronics, defence/strategic electronics and electronic manufacturing services among others.

--IANS

sth/ahm/vt