IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, speaking at the first meeting of the Apex Monitoring Authority for the National Industrial Corridor Development Program, brings to attention the huge opportunities in India’s electronics manufacturing space, where India has proven its mettle as an “important trusted partner” for the world.
He mentioned that the electronic manufacturing space could yield rich benefits, including massive job creation in the sector. “It is highly employment-intensive. One line of iPhone normally provides employment to about 5,000 people. That is a huge number, so even if we can shift 10-15 lines in the coming couple of years, we will see a huge employment generation in this sector,” he said.
The resultant benefits would not only be in terms of the scale of production but even in job creation.
The minister observed that optical fibre connectivity will be an important part of the entire planning exercise and advised that the provision of ducts alongside the roads in these zones would eliminate the need for unnecessary digging at a later stage. The minister also asserted that data centres, especially edge computing data centres, will play a critical role in the future of manufacturing for ‘Industry 4.0’.
The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Suman Bery, chief ministers of different states, including Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Karnataka, besides state industries ministers and senior officials.