Electronic component manufacturers while designing a product should factor in the country’s security interests, said S.Krishnan, Secretary, Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Cyber security is becoming more and more important, he said and warned senior citizens to be extremely careful.
Mr. Krishnan was delivering the 10th G Ramachandran Memorial Lecture on the topic “Building Economic Resilience Through Technology” at the Madras School of Economics at an event organised by the Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI).
He explained in detail on why economic resilience matters. He pointed out that there is increasing inequality among countries and within a country. “There is job displacement due to automation and supply chain concentration... we saw this during the pandemic and we continue to see this,” he said.
He further said: “If you look at it internationally the semi conductor chip industry is dominated by Taiwan and today everybody is in the fear that what happens if there is an issue there. The dynamics of geopolitics again is that something that needs no explanation. We need to ensure that there are supply chains that are resilient. We need to ensure that geopolitical issues do not append the economy suddenly.”
During the session, Mr.Krishnan said that the ministry is now estimating the size of the digital economy and the study is currently under progress. With the Indian Economy becoming a $5 trillion economy in the next five years, the digital economy is estimated to contribute at least $0.56 trillion to $0.91 trillion.
Noting that the electronics market is currently dominated by China, Mr.Krishnan said that India is trying to increase its electronics manufacturing share from the current 3.3% to 8% in next five years. He said that the aim is to ensure that electronics manufacturing touches $300 billion by 2026 (including exports of $120 billion) and a very large chunk of this will be mobile phones. “Auto electronics, IT Hardware and Consumer electronics are other key segments – each of these need to become big as the economy grows,” he noted.
He mentioned that climate change is another key issue that needs to be addressed along with waste management.
