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The Centre has ‘renewed’ the push to electronics manufacturing in India and more investments are expected, Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
Prasad said that he will also continue to push projects like making nearly two-lakh common service centres (CSCs) a big skilling hub so that youth are well trained to get jobs.
“The skills include mobile/ television repair and agriculture appliances. CSCs are already working as a payment gateway for paying utility bills, etc,” Prasad told BusinessLine .
Prasad said he has prioritised some projects in the IT sector that includes – Digital literacy because it is going to compliment the entire ‘Digital India’ initiative, e-Governance — and a renewed push to electronics manufacturing.
He also said the Centre is happy with the mobile manufacturers in India. “We will push for more investments and I intend to visit some of the new mobile phones manufacturers of the country. I am happy that 11 crore mobile phones have been manufactured in the country, 50,000 jobs created and 17 new companies have come in the last one-and-a-half years,” Prasad said.
“I am happy that good investments have come. When I had become the minister, only ₹11,000 crore had come for electronics manufacturing, but now it has reached ₹1.20 lakh crore and many more will come,” he said.
Smartphone marketAccording to industry experts, the smartphone market is expected to grow exponentially in the country, and programmes like payment gateways through smartphones, would help the growth.
A recent report by Gartner said India is the main focus for growth opportunity. Smartphones are expensive for users in India, but with the average selling prices (ASPs) of low-end models falling, Gartner estimates that 139 million smartphones will be sold in India in 2016, growing 29.5 per cent year over year.
“ASPs of mobile phones in India remain under $70, and smartphones under $120 will continue to contribute around 50 per cent of overall smartphone sales in 2016,” it has said.
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