By: L Venkat Ram Reddy
The IT department aims to attract $5 billion investment out of and create 2.50 lakh jobs for the state’s youth.
After the Information Technology sector, the electronics sector will be the major job provider for the youth in Telangana state over the next five years. The Telangana government has set an ambitious target of attracting $5 billion investment in the electronics sector, which in turn is expected to yield 2.50 lakh additional jobs. The state government has earmarked 900 acre around the Shamshabad international airport for setting up electronics manufacturing units.
The government has lined up a series of incentives to encourage electronics industries such as offering land at subsidised rates, waiving electricity bills for 15 years along with uninterrupted power supply, and 100 per cent return of VAT and CST etc. These will be part of the TS Electronics Policy that will be unveiled by the government in a month.
Earlier, efforts of YSR’s government to make Hyderabad an electronics hub by setting up the “Fab City” had failed. But this experience served as a lesson for the Telangana government, which did considerable research on how to devise a “successful model”. “The Fab City project was done without identifying focus areas for development. It lacked direction and vision. In a way, it was done to benefit certain individuals and firms by allotting valuable land on the city’s outskirts. Fab City was basically about producing semi-conductors, which is highly expensive. It’s difficult to attract investments in this sector. But our new electronics policy is being devised in a scientific manner. Lot of research was done to identify key areas for growth,” said Mr K.T. Rama Rao, the minister for IT.
The existing market of the electronics manufacturing industry in India is $100 billion and is expected to increase to $400 billion by 2020. However, current domestic production is not keeping pace with the anticipated growth of the industry. “We have identified five key areas, which include production of LEDs, mobile phones, supply chain, semi-conductors design and strategic electronics. The idea is to tap the global and local market in these specialised areas by providing employment to lakhs of local youth,” Mr Rao added.
The IT department aims to attract $5 billion investment out of and create 2.50 lakh jobs for the state’s youth. Though mobile phones are currently manufactured in the country, the phone components are imported. The state government will encourage production of mobile phone components in the city, thus saving foreign exchange.
Source: Deccan Chronicle