Friday, October 10, 2014: It seem like Narendra Modi’s “Make In India” campaign has started taking some serious leaps now. The Ministry of Information Technology has planned certain changes in the two-year-old special incentive package scheme.
The changes are proposed with the objective of improving the scope of scheme and thereby reducing the procedural hindrances. The revisions involved reduction in the eligibility conditions for entrance and further extending the benefits to new product categories like refrigerators and air conditioners.
However, the electronics industry had earlier observed the need to be fulfilled in order to achieve the zero net imports target. As of now, almost 40 applications which involve the investment of Rs. 146,000 million have been received under the scheme; out of 16 projects have been approved so far, with the required investment of Rs. 22,300 million.
The domestic demand of the electronic products is expected to increase to $400 billion by 2020, of which only $100 billion worth demand would be met by the domestic production. In order to fill the gap, IT Ministry has introduced few changes to the 2012 policy. It has brought down range of the minimum investment requirement to be eligible for the incentive.