C-Dot Executive Director pushes for Atmanirbhar Bharat at TLF 2022

Dr. RajKumar Upadhyay, Executive Director, C-Dot, spoke at the recently held Voice&Data Telecom Leadership Forum. In his keynote address, he spoke about making India Atmanirbhar, or self-reliant.

Dr. Upadhyay started his talk saying, “Our country has been witnessing unprecedented enthusiasm and unparalleled energy from the ecosystem to make India self-reliant as envisioned in our Hon. Prime Minister's clarion call for Atmanirbhar Bharat. Undoubtedly, the road to Atmanirbhar Bharat is very long and arduous. That calls for a high degree of concerted effort, perseverance, and determination from all of us”

He gave two reasons why India should become self-reliant in the telcom/ electronics segment. The first reason being economic, and the second reason being strategic.

“The demand for telecom equipment and electronics in this country is massively increasing over the years. As per government estimates, this will go to USD 300 billion by 2024-25”. Dr. Upadhyay said.

Because of the high demand imports were also increasing, Dr. Upadhyay said, “We are not doing much in the manufacturing sector, so primarily this demand is being currently met by imports. Exports are growing, but not to that extent. But imports are growing rapidly in this country,” said Dr. Upadhyay.

He touched upon the country’s trade deficit. “The trade deficit for the country, for this electronics segment alone, in which telecom equipment comes is around $50 billion. So, if we can manufacture locally, some of these trade deficits can be reduced”

Dr. Upadhyay also talked about the multiplier effect local manufacturing will have on jobs and employment, the economy, and benefits to other industries as well.

Dr. Upadhyay touched on the importance of local manufacturing from a strategic standpoint. “Security is becoming of paramount importance and with the complexity, the networks are gaining day by day - very complex networks are being deployed, the security is also very important,” he said. “If we can build our own equipment, I think we can be very sure that we can deploy security cover. Therefore, Atmanirbhar Bharat is not only an economic consideration but is a strategic consideration as well.”

The initiatives by the government to boost local manufacturing were touched upon in his talk. “Government of India has been taking various initiatives to boost indigenous manufacturing. Several initiatives have been taken by the government for R&D, for supporting the industry, for supporting MSMEs or supporting startups,”

He mentioned the surge in indigenous manufacturing of electronic equipment. “There has been considerable growth in indigenous manufacturing of electronic equipment and mobile phones. “Our exports have increased from 0.2 billion$ in 2018 to 1.7 billion$ in 2021. At the same time, imports have decreased from USD 3.5 billion in 2018 to USD point 5 billion,” said Dr. Upadhyay.

He spoke about the government's Production linked Incentive (PLI), and Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme. “Government came with a very specific scheme, the PLI. A tailor-made scheme to promote manufacturing in this country. Government has put around 12,195 crores for incentivizing the manufacturing in this country” he said.

About the DLI scheme, Dr. Upadhyay said. “Today 50% of the global manufacturing happens in China, but then there are other firms like Qualcomm, Broadcom, those are fabless companies, a lot of money from the value chain is going to them too, we also need to invest into the design part. Therefore, this DLI scheme was announced and the government came up with the semiconductor policy wherein the government allocated 76,000 crores to help the semiconductor ecosystem”

“Government has taken up this very ambitious program under DLI, where it is saying that we will invest into making the infrastructure for semiconductor in this country and will promote both semiconductor design as well as the display ecosystem in this country. I'm sure this is going to usher in a new era in electronic manufacturing by providing this kind of package, and definitely, it is going to pave the way for India's technological leadership in these areas of strategic importance and economic self-reliance.” Said Dr. Upadhyay.

Dr. Upadhyay went on to elaborate “This DLI scheme will help various stages of development of semiconductor design, integrated circuit, chips, SOCs, IP code, semiconductor link design”.

Dr. Upadhyay also touched upon the government's 5% USO funding to promote R&D. “Government has already announced in this budget what translates to around 500 crores per annum to be available to be distributed for R&D to the industry.”

Dr. Upadhyay concluded his talk by urging industry partners to come forward and collaborate with the government to not only develop for India but also develop for the rest of the world.