The Ranjangaon facility is slated to get Rs 2,000 cr investments providing 5,000 jobs, says Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar.

NEW DELHI, Oct 31 (The CONNECT) – Amid criticism of capital flight from the State, Maharashtra gets its first Double Engine benefit as the Centre okayed a Rs 492 crore greenfield Electronics Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) at Ranjangaon near Pune.

This follows a vigorous follow-up by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Rajeev Chandrasekhar announced.

The Ranjangaon EMC will catalyse investments to the tune of over Rs. 2000 crore in the near future & generate employment for over 5,000 people. Fadnavis tweeted: 𝙳𝚎𝚊𝚛 𝙼𝚊𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚜𝚑𝚝𝚛𝚊, 𝙲𝚑𝚎𝚌𝚔 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚘𝚞𝚝 👇🏻.I am extremely grateful to Hon PM @narendramodi ji as Government of India approves Electronics Manufacturing Cluster at Ranjangaon in Pune district under National Policy on Electronics.

“We already have EMCs in Noida, Tirupati, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu - wherein both multi-national companies and Indian startups have set up their units,” Chandrashekhar said and pointed out that the government is the enabling partner in these EMCs.  It is working in tandem with the state governments to make these EMCs a catalyst for the electronics manufacturing in the state, he said.

The Minister also announced that the Ministry of Electronics and IT plans to give a boost to the 1,000-Crore Semicon India Future Design programme to support Semiconductor Design Startups in the state and shall soon visit Maharashtra for a roadshow. He informed that C-DAC, Pune shall be the nodal office for this purpose.

The approval for the EMC was given to Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC).

He said that post Covid, it has become very competitive for the countries/states to corner the opportunities that have sprung up following disruptions in global value chains and supply chains.

Stating that electronics manufacturing has seen an exponential rise after Prime Minister Modi took over in 2014, Chandrasekhar said it has increased to six lakh crores from one lakh crores in 2014.

“While 92% of all mobile phones used by Indian customers were imported in 2014, now 97% of all mobile phones used by Indian customers were domestically manufactured. We had zero exports in electronics manufacturing space in 2014, at present we export equipment worth 70,000 crores,” he explained.

A statement by the Commerce Ministry had stated in February that India’s export of electronic goods rose by almost 88% from USD 6600 Million in 2013-14 to USD 12,400 Million in 2021-22. Mobile phones, IT hardware (laptops, tablets), consumer electronics (TV and audio), industrial electronics and auto electronics are key exports in this sector. This means India did not have zero exports in 2013-14 as claimed by Chandrashekhar.

Citing the example of EMC at Tirupati, the foundation stone of which was laid out in 2015 by the Prime Minister, now boasts of India’s first Lithium Cell manufacturing plant, the Minister said. These EMCs will prove to be the pivot points around which the electronics manufacturing and design ecosystem shall flourish in the years to come - taking India towards its target of US $300 Bn of electronics manufacturing by 2025-26.