Speaking at the seminar on Development of Domestic Supply Chain Development for ICTE Manufacturing organized by CII in the capital today, Mr. Shashi Ranjan Kumar, IAS, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Communications & IT, Department of Telecommunications, announced, “The Ministry will soon come up with an electronic development fund to provide risk capital to companies for development of products,” adding that, “the country has outstanding success in different sectors. Today the question is not whether we can do it or not, but the pertinent point is how we can do it? Similarly, if there’s ease of doing business you don’t need to give incentive for business.”
Citing the difficulty of working out of various states, Mr. Kumar said, “Each state in our country has a unique set of requirements and challenges. For a visitor, working in different states is like working in different countries. Among the impediments for which we are not able to be a top manufacturing hub, is the cost factor - transaction cost is very high in our country.”
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Vinod Sharma, Chairman, CII National Committee on ICTE, Manufacturing & Managing Director, Deki Electronics Ltd, said, “For the last 20-25 years component are being made here, but when it comes to supply we have we not being able to reach the mark. What we need is a level-playing field. The assemblers and component parts manufacturers must have the same level of taxation and transaction cost, similar infrastructure and cost of finance as that of their competitors.”
Mr. Satendra Singh, Head of Manufacturing Operations India, Nokia Solutions and Networks India Pvt Ltd, stressed on the fact that products having shorter shelf life, it’s important that time to market is as low as possible. Our country has a fragmented supply chain. Here not only direct but indirect supply chain needs to be improved. “Quality, service, delivery and competitive price is what we need.”
Mr Mukul Surdas, Sr. Regional Commodity Manager (South East Asia) Jabil Circuits Inc. pointed out that poor infrastructure, non-supportive environment and a lack of initiative from the government were the challenges they faced in India vis-à-vis China.
A key figure that emerged was that localization levels of most large manufacturers is at 12%. That is the “tip of the iceberg”. We have a long way to go. Speakers called this as a “red letter day” for the development of a local value chain.
Constant innovation, changing market forces and rapidly shrinking product life cycles have transformed the electronics industry into the most competitive business in the world economy. Globally the Information Communication Technology & Electronics (ICTE) companies have increasingly turned to supply chain management to provide the improved speed, flexibility and superior customer service necessary to remain competitive. In this emerging scenario “supply chains compete rather than companies”. ICTE manufacturing in India is constrained by local availability of raw materials, components, parts. High dependency on imported inputs increases the lead time, freight, inventory levels, requirement of finance - which all add to the cost without adding value to the end consumer. The National Policy on Electronics 2012 has focused on achieving progressively higher levels of value addition.
New Delhi
17th October 2014