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With a view to evolve the future roadmap towards building comprehensive national capabilities in design and manufacturing in the Electronic Sector, the VIF, in collaboration with the DRDO, CII and the American Chamber of Commerce in India (AmCham India), organised an important seminar ‘Design and Make in India - Electronics Sector’ on 3 & 4 Jun 2015.

While Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar delivered the keynote address at the seminar, a high-powered panel of experts representing the government, the industry and the Diaspora comprehensively discussed, over five highly focused sessions, a broad range of issues relating to the electronics industry in India, including the policy framework and regulations, capabilities in indigenous design and manufacturing, research and development in secured and trusted systems, strategic electronics, commercial systems, developing synergies between different research organizations, and international cooperation, among others.

Prominent Speakers included Dr Arvind Gupta, Deputy National Security Advisor, Mr. Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotions (DIPP), Dr. VK Saraswat, formerly Chief of the DRDO and presently Member of the Niti Aayog, Mr. Chandrajeet Banerjee, Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Dr. Kiran Kumar, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and Dr. Gulshan Rai, National Cyber Security Coordinator, NSCS.

The participants at the seminar identified the gaps in the existing framework of policies and actions as also the technologies that need to be targeted in three specific high technology sectors – cyber security, telecom sector, defence and aviation. Several recommendations that emerged during two days of proceedings were collated in the form of policies during the concluding session, chaired by Dr. VK Saraswat.

In what could be considered as the first step towards laying the foundation stone for concrete projects of national importance, the outcome of the seminar is also expected to help the government fine tune its policies relating to L1 clause, strategic support to start ups in high technology sectors and initiate mechanism to attract foreign diaspora by creating a supporting environment to enable the creation of an Indian domestic industrial base which will generate intellectual property rights, design systems, and manufacture systems in India thus resulting in the creation of an Indian industrial base to achieve the mission of ‘Make and Design in India’ in the Electronic Sector.