Govt to announce package for telecom investors

Aimed at boosting the domestic manufacturing of telecom equipment and smart phones, the Centre is likely to announce a package to investors in the proposed new telecom policy.

The policy, which will be rolled out early next year, will emphasis on creating employment opportunities by encouraging domestic manufacturing of telecom equipment and reduce the dependency of import, said an official in the DOT.

Already 75 mobile phone and accessories manufacturing companies have set up their plants in India. In 2016-17, India produced about 175 million handset units valued at Rs 90,000 crore from 110 million handsets worth Rs 54,000 crore in the previous year, said the official.

In July, the government imposed 10% basic customs duty on mobile phones and parts like charger, headsets, battery and USB cable, as the government discourage import. The government expects this will help achieve 500 million handsets production target for 2019.

Apart from this, in the electronic manufacturing segment, production of LCD/LED television sets have gone up from 82 lakh units in 2014-15 to 1.5 crore units in 2016-17.

As the government set the target to achieve Indian digital economy $1 trillion by 2022 from around $450 billion at present, the government is aggressively pushing growth in electronic manufacturing, IT/ITeS, cyber security, telecom, ecommerce and digital payments.

As of now, the Indian electronics market is estimated to be around $100 billion, IT sector $160 billion, telecom $80 billion, ecommerce $30 billion, and the rest are estimated to be the size of shared economy like taxi hailing services and startups.

The Ministry of Electronics and IT has projected IT and ITeS sector to grow to $350 billion by 2025 from $160 billion, while the electronics sector is poised to touch $300 billion by the same time (from $100 billion currently).