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India must focus on 15 large import items to achieve goal of Aatmanirbhar Bharat: Assocham
Jul-06-2020

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) has said that India should focus on 15 large import items for ramping up its domestic capacity to achieve the objective of Aatmanirbhar Bharat or self-reliant India in 2-3 years. It noted that these items include electronics, coal, iron-steel, non-ferrous metals and vegetable oils, among others. The analysis, based on the latest data, shows that the electronics goods are the largest non-oil import segment. Despite the country being under partial lockdown, India imported electronic goods worth $2.8 billion only in May 2020. In the circumstance of the industry operating in a normal way, these imports are near about $5 billion a month - a huge drain on the forex which needs to be curtailed.

The chamber's Secretary General Deepak Sood said that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's recent scheme of production - linked incentives and encouraging champions can be a game-changer if pursued vigorously. He said both domestic and foreign direct investment should be encouraged in the endeavour. He noted that the Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) for Large Scale Electronics offers incentives to boost domestic manufacturing and attract large investments in mobile phone production and specified electronic components, including assembly, testing, marking and packaging (ATMP) units.

Sood further said ‘while we need to work on a long-term strategy to reduce our dependence on crude oil, in the short to medium term, we must move in a mission mode to be Aatmanirbhar in at least 15 of the critical sectors. we should work on a twin track of not only investing more to ramp up capacity, but also ensure that the end-consumers get the best of the quality products at internationally competitive prices.’ He added that self-reliance in the real sense would mean an aggressive production and pricing strategy involving scale and speed of execution. 

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