The electronics manufacturing sector alone can contribute $1 trillion towards achieving the $5 trillion economy dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for IT has said. “About 6 lakh direct jobs have been created by the sector so far,” he informed.
Speaking at the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) Foundation Week in a session titled “Digitalisation roadmap to support the growth of the Indian economy,” he also said, “By 2025, the country would be able to manufacture 1 billion phones, 50 million televisions, 50 million hardware, including laptops, tablets and other accessories. The idea is to make India a global hub of mobile manufacturing as it has talent, innovation and potential to be so.”
Talking about the policies, he mentioned that the right policies make a difference in the output and growth of the sector. “The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme that we introduced to the sector during the Covid-19 pandemic, attracted top 5 global players to India. Further, the top 5 companies in India will be able to perform better, too. I am confident that these companies together will be managed to produce mobile phones and accessories worth Rs 10 lakh crore in the next 5 years. Out of that, the exports figure would be Rs 7 lakh crore and the sector will generate employment of 9 lakhs jobs directly or indirectly.
Prasad also reiterated that data is going to drive the future of the world and data management, data innovation and data refining are going to be the important businesses in the future. “Our aim is to make India a top global nation in data refining and data innovation,” he emphasised.
Shedding light on data security, Prasad warned, “It is the fiduciary's responsibility to use the data for the purpose for which it is being taken and not otherwise. India should not compromise on its data sovereignty, as India is an emerging economy and there would be fierce competition to get hold of the data. Indians, therefore, should be able to utilise their creative minds to have an edge and power play in this emerging data economy sector and establishing India as a global player in the world.
He further added that the digital ecosystem in India will work only if the common people of the country are made stakeholders. “The technology like artificial intelligence (AI) should be used in areas like farming and healthcare to benefit the people at large, and then only the ecosystem will survive,” he cautioned.
Talking about the growth of digital inclusiveness, the minister said that because of the JAM (Jan-Dhan, Aadhar, Mobile) trinity, the government has disbursed over Rs 13 lakh crore under 400 government schemes directly to the bank accounts of the poor in the last 5 and-a-half years. “We have saved close to Rs 1.78 lakh crore which used to be pocketed by middlemen,” he said. He also said the growth of digital payments by way of UPI (unified payments interface) has recorded the highest ever transactions of 2.21 billion in November.
