NEW DELHI: Manufacturers Association of Information Technology (MAIT) the apex body representing India’s ICT sector organized Electronics Manufacturing Summit 2018 in New Delhi.

It has been a constant effort by the Government and industry to attract manufacturing to India and increase the value addition, this event provided a platform to elaborate to the manufacturing leaders on the proactive policies designed to attract more investments under “Make in India”.

The Summit brought together the global decision-makers in manufacturing, senior representatives from Central & State Governments and local ecosystem players from ICT supply chain to share their experiences that will help in developing the manufacturing ecosystem in India. The Summit witnessed 250+ delegates from 25 large corporations and 100+ suppliers from electronics component industry.

The event also saw the launch of “Electronics Supplier Portal” by Guests of Honour Dr Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog and Shri Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary, MeitY. The portal is focused to work as a bridge between governments, businesses and other stakeholders, acting as an ecosystem builder linking governments, manufacturer and local suppliers in niche electronics industry verticals.

Welcoming the delegates Nitin Kunkolienker, President, MAIT and Director & Board Member, Synegra EMS Ltd highlighted that the objective of the Summit is to provide an opportunity for Global giants in supply chain to discuss their investment plans in India, give insights into their sourcing requirements and for the Indian component manufacturers to showcase their capabilities, thus creating a strong case for developing India capability.

He expressed his happiness on the overwhelming response the Summit has witnessed with 25 large corporations, 100+ Suppliers from across the globe and presence of entire Electronic Manufacturing fraternity. On manufacturing, he opined that we have achieved a few initial successes, however, there are miles to go in terms of analysing and fixing the key fundamental factors, which will help increase the value addition (Value addition is a factor of component ecosystem and it is currently not more than 5-7%) and I hope the Government will address this through its New National Electronic, Telecom and Industrial policies”.

He further suggested that for Electronic industry to blossom in India, we need to focus both on the domestic demand and exports as it will provide the required economies of scale. We also need to promote CKD manufacturing in the country as mere SKD will not help in value addition and MAIT is committed to making this happen.

Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog while addressing the delegates said, “I thank MAIT for bringing together key associations, global MNCs and Govt agencies for the global Summit and congratulate MAIT on the launch of Demand Supply Portal of electronics in India which will create a seamless connection between buyer and supplier. He further said that “we are on the cusp of major change and there is incredible focus on India. Since electronics is heart of all disruptive technologies, there is need to create an innovative ecosystem for manufacturing to succeed.” While citing the key statistics of current production/consumption figure and if we grow at 20% rate, he expressed his satisfaction that there are chances of India become a trillion-dollar digital economy by 2047.

We should dispel the myth of we are being the large captive market and hence, there is need to ramp up our share on global market. Since action has shifted to states and NITI Aayog role is also to promote competitive as well as cooperative federalism, Industry need to work with states.

Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary, MeitY congratulated MAIT for bringing all stakeholders together. He further said: “India need to work hard to get back its share of manufacturing and with capabilities in design and R&D growing, the demand will fuel the growth of Make in India. Under the MSIP’s program, we have supported more than 100 SMT lines which will help move further towards sub-assembly from assembly. We have enormous demand, capability in design and embedded system, which will help in forming further momentum in manufacturing. The Summit will definitely help us come up with new recommendations for National Policy on Electronics.”

N. Sivasailam, Special Secretary, Department of Telecommunication in his special address said : “It is important to develop broad range of policies to promote manufacturing in the country. The policies formed give us an impression that we are all set to enter manufacturing in a manner by which we make it relevant to the world. It will be great to see the global companies making in India for the world as we have standards that are at par with world’s manufacturing standards.”

He also gave insights into policy making saying that “Any policy is not be all and end all in itself, it’s the larger part of the Government strategy and hence Industry need not see the policy in terms of its deliverables and need to see the historical perspective of how the ecosystem fared at that time and policies are tactical measures and part of larger policy”.

Jeff Purnell, Global Chief Procurement Officer, CISCO gave his keynote presentation said, “Digitization is changing the manufacturing and supply chain model in India and we need to invest in disruptive technologies to stay ahead. Cisco is committed to the Make in India initiative and is working on to not only assemble but manufacture and increase sourcing.” He added, “The coordination between State and Central Government needs to have a very laser focus on promoting efficiency and speed to promote manufacturing in the country.”

The Summit had presence of distinguished panellists Sanjay Kumar Rakesh, Joint Secretary, MeitY and S. K Marwaha, Director, MeitY in respective sessions.

Sanjay Kumar Rakesh, Joint Secretary said “The government is doing a lot to promote manufacturing in terms of raising the required barrier to protect the domestic market and working towards facilitation of exports and also at the same time working on simplification in line of the industry. We are in the process of modifying our National Policy of Electronics and would like industry bodies like MAIT to come up with their recommendations”.

S. K Marwaha, Director, MeitY said:” The challenge that the government faces is that most of the electronic products fall under ITA and the customs duty is zero, therefore we cannot impose BCD and hence some better route need to be explored and deliberated.”

Commenting on PMA , he said that since the public procurement order is finally notified, Government is keenly observing all tenders provide sufficient benefit to indigenous industry”.

The Summit was structured around 3 Super Sessions to promote Make in India. The first session was titled ‘Promise to Performance – Making Polices Work’ and discussed on improving the policies to participate in Global Value Chain, Governments vision and Industry Expectations. The second Super Session was aimed at discussing amongst the global industry stalwarts their perspective on “Making India NEXT Manufacturing Destination”.

The session saw discussion around key issues pertaining to Global Manufacturers experience in developing countries, Overall impact on social responsibility, Supply Chain Security, Engineering competencies, Quality, Infra Focus and Ease of Doing Business. The last session focused on the “Key enablers for increasing the Value Addition, gearing up component ecosystem, filling the gap from Low to High Value Addition, Scaling up for Global participation”.

While delivering the closing remarks Harish Krishnan, Vice President, MAIT and Managing Director-Public Affairs & Strategic Engagements, Cisco Systems (I) Pvt Ltd said: “We are at the cusp of breakthrough and there is a need for India to ‘Manufacture for the world’ considering the huge world market of 2.4 trillion dollars and cost of manufacturing in India is declining due to Government increased focus. Our objective is to promote authentic manufacturing by increasing Value Addition. Several initiatives taken by MeitY and DoT, production of electronic products in the country has witnessed significant growth, employment opportunities have increased manifold and dependence on imports have reduced to a great extent. ‘Electronics Manufacturing Summit 2018’ is a great platform that has brought the Global giants in supply chain and the Indian component manufacturers under a single roof and I am sure that it will create a strong case for developing India capability and will act as a catalyst for India to participate in globally competitive hardware industry for a win-win situation.”