Union Government keen to frame industry-friendly policies

Bengaluru: The Union Minister for Railways, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnav assured on Sunday, that the Central Government was very keen to introduce industry friendly policies.

At a breakfast meeting with top industry leaders at a private hotel in Bengaluru, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav stated that the government would also introduce a new comprehensive digital economy regulatory policy. He added that the Research and Development policy would be made more relevant as a supplement to the 'Make in India' initiative. Saying that the government was expecting a report to be submitted by industry experts

With regard to promoting Startups and ESDM sector, he suggested IT vision group Chairperson Kris Gopalakrishnan, Startup vision group Chairperson Prashanth Prakash and Karnataka Digital Economy Mission Chairperson Dr BV Naidu to take up the task . He said that the union government had been always consulting industrial leaders before framing policies. The government expects industrialists to share their opinions in an open state of mind. They also should recommend the solutions that they think are effective in resolving the respective challenges.

The government is aware of the fact that there was a skill gap in the mechanical sector. To overcome this, if anyone of the industries comes forward to design a course that would be introduced in any of the universities, he said. He felt, particularly Wistron and Foxconn companies should take a lead in this.

To make best use of the opportunities in the semiconductor sector there needs to be a comprehensive programme set for a long term of 20 years. We need to make use of modern technology based industries. In the first face if we are able to taste success in incubation programmes that could be expanded to more than 20 states, Minister Vaishnav opined.

There have been reports saying that logistics of goods had been a challenge hindering the growth of industries. However, the Department of Railways was ready to resolve this by providing 30,000 coaches. The industry can test this initially at Bengaluru itself. If this is found to be successful then it would contribute to 'ease of be doing business' in a significant manner, he remarked. Previously it used to take 7 to 8 months to give permission to set up telecom towers. But now 80% of the towers are getting cleared within 7 days, Union Minister pointed out.

Prashant Prakash said that it is very critical to identify which kind of Startup suits the respective ecosystem. There is a need to redefine certain things pertaining to Startups.

The Minister for IT-BT, Dr CN Ashwath Narayan, ACS, Department of IT-BT, E V Ramana Reddy, Director Dr Shivashankar were present. Also Amrit Acharya (Zetwork), KS Vishwanath (NASSCOM), Sunil Deshpande (TCS), Karthik Neelakanthan (Infosys), Lingaraju (Kyndryl), Manoj Prasad (Siemens) Manu Sale Mercedes Benz) attended. Representatives from Goldman Sachs, Accenture, Micron, Teamlease, Angel investor, CaptainFresh BlackBuck were among a few who were present.