The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has hailed the Union governments approval for electronics manufacturing clusters (EMCs) and strengthening of existing clusters across India. The industry body said that such a move will give a boost to the $30-billion information,communication technology and electronics (ICTE) manufacturing industry. Vinod Sharma,Co-Chairman,CII National Committee on ICTE manufacturing,said,The approval would make the industry more competitive,attract investments,generate employment,create additional revenue and lead to lesser dependence on imports. He added that the CII has been campaigning for support to EMCs to make ICTE manufacturing more competitive. Chandrajit Banerjee,Director General,CII,said the,EMCs have potential advantages like increased productivity of the companies in the cluster,driving innovation,cutting down unproductive costs and reduction of costs through shared resources. CII said that though the sector has registered a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 15 per cent in the last decade. India accounts for only 1.5 per cent of the global electronics production. The ICTE suffers from high transaction costs and costs on account of high inventory levels due to the dependence of supply chain on imports. It is estimated that adding value of 50 per cent entails extra costs of about 8 per cent, CII said. The ICTE industry would contribute significantly in meeting the national objective of increasing the share of manufacturing sector in the GDP from the current level of 16 to 25 per cent by 2022,the statement added.
