The Heavy Industries Department will come out with a 10-year vision plan for electrical equipment manufacturing industry in a couple of months, said Ambuj Sharma, Joint Secretary.
Focus will be on technology upgrade, industry competitiveness, skill development, conversion of latent demand to actual demand and exports. This would be similar to the plan rolled out for the auto industry in 2006, he said.
Sharma was addressing the annual convention of the Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers' Association, here on Friday.
On technology, he said some industries as such were on par or ahead, but a major portion, especially in the SME segment, was lagging behind. Here, research and development played a key role. The percentage of revenue allocation in India for R&D was only about one per cent against the international average of five to six per cent, he said.
The Government was also keen on clearing the roadblocks that hampered industries from being competitive. The Planning Commission said lack of infrastructure, financial cost and low productivity were major dampeners to the competitiveness of industries.
Efforts were on to equip technical manpower recruited by the industry with adequate skill sets at the collegiate level itself so that time and money were not wasted in training them again by the industry.
The Government was also keen on ensuring that all industries across businesses generate 30 per cent of their revenue through exports so that a balance could be struck against imports, he added.