Right now in our country the ability of our planners to take decision for risky pursuits is getting
a little difficult because of civil and political system.But the fact is the time is running out fast as the
Industry is getting more important and critical ,both compared to oil and gas industry size,as well
as the mounting size of imports.The foreign exchange outgo is increasing and in next few years imports may as well touch 400 Billion $ in next fewer years! This is not a happy scenario both because of hardening $ as well as our limited exports for past several quarters.
There are the short term as well as more long term options which can be exercised as far as the ICT
Industry is concerned.We must liberalize and open the sub sectors for all types of investments-Global
as well as the Domestic entrepreneurs.We have to break up the industry hardware into three distinct
categories: Devices, Equipment and Complete Network and Systems.Both the Digital India and Make
in. India programs should be liberally expanded in the scope,so that faster import of FDI can happen.
FDI and its attended manufacturing rollout here will ensure on ground activity and capital formation.
As a target all states and the Deity must give eClearances for setting up both 100pct and less than 100 pct FDI participation.FDI must be tagged for 100 pct,if there is case of multi use of ICT in Telecom,Railways,Defense and Higher Research and Aerospace.A one page application for FIPB
should be done for immediate approval.There is no need for even waiting beyond user ministry vetting time.
Necessarily all these projects can be under various state Govt STP or SEZ schemes including the
Semiconductor projects.Certain state Governments have set up these projects on the basis of their own initiatives.More and more such projects should be encouraged so the investment from private
sector can pour in.If the systems can be imported into countries which will improve quality of public
infrastructure then these can be approved without delay.Such imports will help improve domestic
revenues and indirectly be helpful in paying off to Global vendors!
Human Resource Development is another area of concern in ICT industry in India.The industry can
tie up with Global professional Organisations and domestic vendors for ongoing supplying to the new
Organisations.This can be part of the initial application where the requirement of such skills can be identified and if any Visa needed to import the project manpower temporarily.Ease of doing the business should be both really easy as well as Simple.
We will discuss in next blog some more specifics as far as Defense Manufacturing is concerned.
