The Andhra Pradesh Government on Sunday proposed to set up a high-end Research and Development Park in Electronic Manufacturing in Hyderabad in line with Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) of Taiwan.
The proposal was made by Information Technology Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah during his interaction with Union IT and HRD Minister Kapil Sibbal and Dr Kumar Mangalam Birla at the sidelines of the first convocation of BITS Pilani in the city. Ponnala suggested that India was in dire need of high end electronic R&D Park such as ITRI.
The Minister informed that the ITRI, located in Schinchu Science Park of Taiwan, acts as an epicentre of innovation in Electronic System Design and Manufacturing area and houses incubation centers for research and development activities in new and advance technology in electronic design and electronic hardware manufacturing space. It works at nurturing ideas from concept to product development and subsequently commercialization of Products. Hundreds of patents are registered every year, at an average of three patents a day, at ITRI Taiwan, he said.
Providing a background on the state of Electronic Manufacture sector in India and Globally, .Ponnala Lakshmaiah said that the Electronics, reported at USD 1.75 trillion, is the largest and fastest growing manufacturing industry in the world. It is expected to reach USD 2 trillion by 2014 and USD 2.4 trillion by 2020. Currently, the demand in the Indian market stands at USD 45 billion and is projected to grow to USD 125 billion by 2014 and USD 400 billion by 2020. Further, exports are expected to increase from the current USD 4 billion to USD 15 billion by 2014 and USD 80 billion by 2020. Domestic consumption is expected to grow exponentially at a CAGR of 22% for the period 2009–2020. This will be driven by a surge in income levels, the aspirational value of electronics goods, demand from a resurgent corporate sector and the government’s focus on e-governance.
The Minister said that domestic production was at present less than 45 per cent of domestic consumption. There is a huge gap in the demand and supply which will widen as the demand grows and domestic manufacturing continues to slacken. Significantly most of India’s electronics imports are from China and Indian government and Government of Andhra Pradesh may like to reckon this from a strategic perspective, he said.
Lakshmaiah mentioned that if India needs to achieve its dream of becoming a self sustained economy in consumer and strategic electronic sector, then instead of depending heavely on surmountable imports of electronic components from China and Taiwan, India should immediately have an ITRI like institution in India supporting the Electronic Manufacturing sector.
Further, Lakshmaiah suggested that there was no better place then Hyderabad to have the ITRI as the city today has a sound base of Electronic Design and Component manufacturing companies including base and strategic electronic. Out of the US $ 9 Billion IT Exports from Andhra Pradesh, US $ 1 Billion is contributed by Electronic Hardware Manufacturing sector. There is already an ESDM industry present and Hyderabad would be an ideal place to have a electronic sector specific R&D Institution. Understanding the importance of the electronic manufacturing sector Government of Andhra Pradesh recently announced.
–Agencies