Both foreign, indigenous tech important: Goyal

Domestic electronics makers will need to ramp up indigenous research in technology and will also have to invite tech from abroad as investments, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal ( pictured) said at a meeting with the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ECS) on Tuesday.

Faced with demands for increasing import duties on electronics and increasing export benefits, Goyal stressed that government incentives in the sector such, as the production-linked incentive for electronics manufacturing scheme, will ultimately lead industry to be self-sufficient.

The minister called upon the electronics hardware sector to use the route of innovation, R&D and disruption to expand their domestic footprints and increase their exports.

Sectors that are more selfreliant and try to grow without the support of the government have made their mark, he said.

Depending exclusively on incentives, such as Exports from India Scheme, the minister said, may not add to the competitiveness of the products, since such schemes are time-bound, and export competitiveness should come from inherent strengths.

Goyal assured exporters that the department will take up the issue with the Reserve Bank of India, which tracks it but does not share with exporters.

He said the government was working on identifying select electronic items such as television sets, close circuit TVS, and air conditioners that could be manufactured in India and be exported in large quantities.