The Union Cabinet has approved a national electronics policy with an aim to create a Rs 26 lakh crore electronics manufacturing ecosystem and generate 1 crore jobs by 2025.

“National Policy on Electronics (NPE) came in 2012. Now, we are revising it completely as National Policy on Electronics 2019. We are targeting a $400 billion (ecosystem) by 2025. It will give jobs to 1 crore people,” Law and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said after the Cabinet meeting.

The policy envisions positioning India as a global hub for electronics system design and manufacturing (ESDM) by encouraging and driving capabilities for developing core components, including chipsets, and creating an enabling environment for the industry to compete globally.

The overall target will include the production of 100 crore mobile handsets by 2025, valued at about Rs 13 lakh crore, including 60 crore mobile handsets valued at nearly Rs 7 lakh crore for export.

In 2017-18, electronic production growth increased to 26.7 per cent as compared with 5.5 per cent in 2014-15, Prasad said. “Now, we want to take it to 32-33 per cent,” he said.

The government plans to provide interest subvention and credit guarantee scheme to ease financial burden on domestic manufacturers, he said. The policy proposes to push strategic electronics ecosystem in the country that is critical for sectors such as defence, medical and aviation and promote trusted electronics value-chain initiatives to improve the national cyber security profile. It promises special package of incentives for mega projects that are extremely high-tech and entail huge investments, such as semiconductor facilities display fabrication.

The National Policy on Electronics 2019 proposes the creation of a sovereign patent fund to promote the development and acquisition of intellectual property rights or patents in the electronics sector. It will enable the flow of investment and technology, leading to higher value addition in the domestically manufactured electronic products, increased electronics hardware manufacturing in the country and their export, while generating substantial employment opportunities.

Besides the policy, the Cabinet also granted ex-post facto approval to the memorandum of understanding between India and Vietnam for cooperation in the field of communications.