Regretting absence of a comprehensive national policy for IT hardware manufacturing industry, a Parliamentary panel has recommended "urgent" finalisation of such a policy in order to fully exploit its vast potential.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT in its latest report on 'Demand for Grants' expressed surprise that there was no clear and comprehensive national policy for hardware manufacturing industry "although its urgent need had been felt".
"The committee learns that the IT task force of the prime minister gave three reports, out of which first was on software, second on hardware and third was about the overall structure," the committee said.
It noted that although the software policy was in place, on hardware IT policy there had been discussions and the process was on to formulate the same.
"In view of the fact that hardware industry has the potential to provide direct employment for 1.6 million and indirect employment for 3.2 million as compared to 2.2 million employment capacity of the software sector, and that hardware industry was highly diversified, competitive and capital intensive, the committee recommends that a policy for hardware manufacture industry should be urgently finalised so that the industry gets the focused attention and the vast potential is fully exploited," it said.
"The basic philosophy to induce manufacturing of electronics and IT products in India, should be to provide world class environment," it said.
Government, responding to the committee's query on the matter, said the process for formulating a policy was on.
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