ELE Times March 2017 ELE Times | Page 8

News

Govt. invest Rs. 2,200 cr in electronic startups for ' zero ' imports by 2020

Collaborating with Venture Capitalists
in India is that we have not had big VC
( VCs) and utilising the Electronics
funding coming in. Mostly it has gone into
Development Fund( EDF), the
e – commerce and e – tailing. That is not
Government of India( GoI) is planning to
enough. We need to create IPR also. To
invest upto Rs. 2,200 crores on electronic
create IPR, there is a large number of tech
startups, working on new technologies
start – ups, people working in nano –
especially on nano-electronics and IT, by
technology etcetera but the problem is
2019, a senior government official said.
who will fund them, because it is almost
10 % of EDF’ s capital will be invested in
like R & D, until they commercialise”,
each company and the rest will be put in
Income Tax department secretary, Aruna
by Venture Capitalists( VCs).
Sundararajan said.
“ One of the major issues that we have had
The Government’ s aim regarding EDF is to
enable startups to get funded by private VCs. Another main objective of the Government’ s EDF is to develop the electronics design and manufacturing sector in India so that India’ s net electronics imports by 2020 are‘ zero’!

Imports in electronics surge by 26 % to Rs 26,757 crore in January

Increase in electronic imports in India, has been marked by 26 per cent to Rs 26,757.59 crore in January and exports reduced by 10 per cent to Rs 3,162.73 crore, as per Commerce Ministry estimates. Electronics imports stood at Rs 21,220 crore in the same month a year ago and exports were at Rs 3,526.13, the report said. Industry players attributed the surge in imports to low value addition in electronics manufacturing, quick surge in demand for point of sales and related products.“ The value addition in good manufactured in India is low and even manufacturing is not at the scale to meet local demand. The demand for products like mobile phones, telecom equipment have been rising but most of the parts used in them are imported which we see among reason for rise in imports,” ELCINA, said. Electronic Industries Association of India Secretary General Rajoo The budget for 2017-18 skipped extension of differential duty on Goel said. mic, receivers, metals and plastics, key pad and USB cables as“ To capitalise on demand, we feel that large number of imports demanded by handset manufacturers proposed under phase
of PoS machine may have added to the import. Government manufacturing programme-2. needs to focus on increasing value addition to curb imports,” Goel

ICA echoes Investors ' Perplexity over Govt. Schemes

Mobile industry body Indian Cellular Association( ICA), recently
Mohindroo said a number of investors have also expressed
stated that enthusiastic electronics companies assessing to invest
concern on governments move to cap subsidy outgo for
in India for manufacturing, are now perplexed over the
electronics manufacturers under MSIPS to Rs 10,000 crore.
government schemes and roadmap, those aimed to boost local
The scheme provides subsidy for capital expenditure— 20 per
production.
cent for investments in special economic zones( SEZs) and 25 per
Showing concerns over the high-taxes in India, ICA National
cent in non-SEZs.
President Pankaj Mohindroo, stated that,“ There can be no
He said that 2017-18 is going to be the defining year for mobile
substantial investment in this environment where direct tax and
industry where government support is required to achieve 500
dividend distribution tax is so high. Phase-wise manufacturing
million mobile phone productions in India by 2020 as identified
programme has not been carried forward.
by Fast Track Task Force( FTTF) set up under the Ministry of
He pointed out that when competitive rivals China and Vietnam
Electronics and IT.
are taxing in the range of 0-10 per cent, the direct and dividend
He said that government has not given special incentives for
tax in India adds up to around 45 per cent.“ Numerous investors
boosting exports of mobile phones, which dominates electronic
have expressed concern on this as well MSIPS( Modified Special
manufacturing segment.
Incentive Package Scheme)“.
ELE Times | 08 | March, 2017