Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav
The government has approved seven big projects under the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme. There will be a total investment of Rs 5,532 crore. Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnav gave this information on Monday. He said that with these projects the country’s import bill of electronic parts can be reduced by about Rs 20,000 crore.
The Union Minister said that the approved projects include schemes for making printed circuit boards i.e. motherboard bases, camera modules, copper laminate and polypropylene films. These are essential parts used in all consumer electronics.
Of these seven, four projects are of Keynes Group in which there will be an investment of Rs 3,280 crore. This will make multi-layer PCB, camera module assembly and high density interconnect PCB. The Rs 991 crore project by Ascent Circuits, a unit of Amber Group, will produce multi-layer PCBs worth Rs 7,800 crore. Sirma Strategic Electronics’ Rs 765 crore project will produce PCBs worth Rs 6,900 crore and SRF Ltd’s Rs 496 crore project will produce polypropylene films worth Rs 1,311 crore.
Camera modules will be made in the country
The special thing is that for the first time camera modules will be made in India without any foreign technical partnership. These will be used in mobile phones, laptops, tablets and CCTV cameras. The Union Minister said that with these projects, about 27 percent of the country’s total PCB demand and 15 percent of the camera module demand will be met domestically. Components like copper laminate and polypropylene film will be made in India for the first time and will meet 100 percent domestic needs.
Electronics and IT Secretary S. Krishnan said that these projects will provide employment to about 5,195 people. Investment proposals worth Rs 1.15 lakh crore have been received so far under the scheme. This scheme has been launched to strengthen electronics manufacturing in the country and to increase India’s share in the global supply chain.