Indian Government Announced Rs 1 Lakh Crore Corpus, After Slashing Import Duty, A New Welcoming Move For Tech Sector

The Indian government recently announced the slashing of import duties on the number of mobile phone components from 15% to 10% to boost manufacturing in India. As per the notification issued by the Government, it has lowered the import duty for the inputs used in making battery covers, main lenses, back covers, antennae, SIM sockets, and other mechanical items of plastic and metal.

This move is seen as a welcoming step by the experts as some of them expect that this move will lead to a fall in the price of smartphones in the domestic market though some believe it may not impact the price in the local market.

Apart from this major step from the Indian government, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her interim budget speech that a Rs 1 lakh crore corpus will be established with a 50-year interest-free loan. It will finance the research and innovation in the sunrise domain for the long term. As per the FM’s speech, this will encourage the private sector to scale up research and innovation in sunrise domains.

“This reduction, coupled with the establishment of a one-lakh-crore corpus supported by a fifty-year interest-free loan, will empower the private sector to significantly advance research and innovation in sunrise domains,” said Ravi Kunwar India & APAC at HMD Global (The Home of Nokia Phones).

Further, he said, “Despite the industry’s growth, there is substantial room for expansion in India, and we are optimistic that supportive government policies, infrastructure investments, and a vibrant innovation ecosystem will unleash the next wave of digital transformation”.

Mr. Shreeranganath Kulkarni, Managing Director, InfoVision said “InfoVision warmly welcomes the budget announcement by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The introduction of a 1-lakh crore fund with a 50-year interest-free benefit for private sector research and development is a transformative step, particularly for innovation-driven enterprises like ours with a strong focus on edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)”.