The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has warned that the domestic information technology manufacturing industry will be wiped out within the next five years unless the government creates a stable investment climate to promote manufacturing and attract investment in this sector. CII suggested setting up of an IT Development Bank to fund students for studies in this sector. It also recommended speedy implementation of the panel’s report which calls for the development of a world scale manufacturing base in India through long-term stable policies, simplified procedures and integrated domestic and export manufacturing capacities. The hardware sector is currently being hard hit by the duties levied on every component. While overall duties have been falling, the past budget increased some component duties to such a level that they are higher than the product duty itself. The Manufacturers Association of Information Technology has submitted a three-pronged 10-point agenda to achieve global competitiveness in the next three to four years to the Prime Minister’s National IT Task Force.
