The Union Government reportedly plans to establish a Rs 100 billion electronic development fund (EDF) in 2012, aimed at promoting the manufacturing of electronic hardware in the country.
Ajay Kumar, joint secretary, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, said that the EDF will float several other funds under its umbrella to identify research and development projects in different hardware manufacturing verticals and fund them.
All of these funds will be managed by different fund managers. The EDF will have a miniscule role to play with regard to these funds.
Further, Kumar said that the task force established by the Department of Information Technology chalked out a roadmap for rapid growth of the electronic manufacturing industry in the medium and long term.
The Government has identified five major recommendations from that report which include establishing a National Electronic Mission, creating policies for preferential access to procure electronic goods, encouraging the manufacture of specific high priority product lines by providing capital grant and creating electronic manufacturing clusters.
