(VM) 'Government eyes electronics manufacturing to cut import bill'

Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad Tuesday said the government aims to enhance the manufacture of electronic items otherwise in a few years its import bill will surpass that of fuel.

"Manufacturing in India is costlier than importing. India is importing electronic goods worth more than $100 billion every year. This is likely to cross $400 billion by 2020. Its import will surpass the fuel import. Manufacturing electronics items in India is very important," he said.

Prasad was speaking at the 10th national summit on "E-governance & Digital India: Minimum Government, Maximum Governance", organised by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

He also said he will lay the foundation for the first electronics cluster in Madhya Pradesh in the first week of October.

He added the government has given in-principle approval for setting up electronics clusters in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Maharashtra and is talking to other states in this regard.

The minister recently visited Germany and pitched about the great potential that India has in the field of electronics manufacturing and non-conventional energy.

He said that electronic manufacturers in Germany are very excited to come in a big way as there's going to be an explosion of demand.

Prasad further said there is a huge opportunity of e-commerce in the country.

"As Flipkart is growing so big, as we see the success of Alibaba and as we see the aspirational India evolving with great enthusiasm particularly in rural areas, I see a vast opportunity for e-commerce," he said.

"I see almost an explosion of various kind of availability of services through e-commerce. We can have couple of Alibabas in the coming future if we are able to roll out this (National Optical Fibre Network) programme very well," he added.

The National Optical Fibre Network programme aims to connect 2.5 lakh gram panchayats by 2017 through broadband connectivity.