India should look at H/w manufacturing seriously!

N. Ravi Shanker,
Jt. Secretary IT,
Govt. of India

India is estimated to be standing at 65% of IT & ITeS out of which 49 billion is export oriented. This gives us an indicator that in-depth IT & ICT adoption has not reached much in the country, claims the Government of India.

Talking to VARIndia N. Ravi Shanker, Jt. secretary IT, Govt. Of India, shared that as of now India is regarded as the major power in IT , ITeS sector, especially global outsourcing with around 30-35% outsourcing coming towards India. “Indian competence in IT and ITeS sector has already been well established, now is the time to prove our caliber in the hardware manufacturing,” he adds.

Shanker feels that today the country is at the throes of supply demand gap. “We as a country is growing at the 8.5 - 9% GDP. Disposable income at the hands of the masses is increasing. Electronic goods affordability has also increased in the Indian market. Today our demand is of the order of 45billion US $ in terms of value and the production within the country which includes mobile phones, networking products, TV etc. is of the order of 20billion,” he shares.

Govt. of India has set up a Task Force under the chairmanship of Mr. Ajay Choudhary on IT and ICT. The Task Force has given set of recommendations, which suggest that India needs to become a manufacturing hub. “By 2020, 400billion worth of goods would be required in India. So if we don’t then there would be a huge demand and supply gap,” claims Shanker.

Citing an example Shanker said, “Mobile phone is a consumer item and the anticipated demand in 2020 is 240million units of handsets which would be roughly worth 30billion US$.”  

“If we don't manufacture then there would be a huge foreign exchange outflow. This is has been articulated in the Task force report,” he adds further. The govt. is looking at the report and its suggestions very seriously.