OREANDA-NEWS. The Minister for Communications and Information Technology Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad said in Lok Sabha today that the Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC) Scheme provides financial assistance for creating world-class infrastructure for electronics manufacturing units and Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS) provides financial incentives to offset disability and attract investments in the manufacturing of electronics products (including telecom). He called for the states to come forward to take benefit of these schemes.

Government has approved setting up of two semiconductor wafer fabrication (FAB) manufacturing facilities in India which would create the necessary ecosystem for design and manufacturing of telecom equipments, Shri Prasad added.

Under the Electronics Hardware Technology Park (EHTP) Scheme, approved units are allowed duty free import of goods required by them for carrying on export activities, CST reimbursement and excise duty exemption on procurement of indigenously available goods, as per the Foreign Trade Policy.

Under the Focus Product Scheme of the Foreign Trade Policy, exports of listed electronic products are entitled to duty credit scrip equivalent to 2% / 5% of FOB value of exports. These include telecom products and components including mobile handset.

DeitY provides funding under several schemes for promotion of R&D, including support for International Patents in Electronics & IT (SIP-EIT); Multiplier Grants Scheme and Scheme for Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE) in the area of Electronics, ICT and Management.

The Scheme to enhance the number of PhDs in the Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) and IT/IT Enabled Services (ITES) sectors has been approved. 3000 PhDs are proposed to be supported under the Scheme. This support is also available for telecom sector, the minister added.