Prime minister Narendra Modi will formally launch the Digital India programme on July 1, said communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. The minister was speaking at a MoU signing agreement between industry bodies national association of software and services companies (Nasscom) and Indian electronics and semiconductor association (IESA) to speed up ‘make in India’ and Digital India programmes of the government.

Prasad said that he is giving more attention to electronics manufacturing given its crucial demand in the domestic and foreign market.

The minister said that he has given in principle approval to 21 clusters. So far over Rs 65,0000 crore investment proposals have come under the cluster scheme.

The government has laid down 48,000 kilometer of optical fiber cable under the NOFN. He said that state’s participation is crucial in the rollout of NOFN; he has held meetings with IT ministers of states and as a result Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh have agreed to form SPVs for scheme’s rollout.

Vinay Shenoy, chairman, IESA, told Governance Now that the aim of the collaboration between the two industry associations is to create an avenue for smaller Indian companies , which are into devices, applications, to participate in smart cities, defence and internet of things projects.

It is a way to discover startups and integrate them with larger players, he said.

This partnership between the two industry associations aims to create a common agenda that will guide the government and industry to construct policies and an environmental leading to the creation of ESDM and IT products, solutions and brands out of India, IESA said in a press statement.

R Chandrashekhar, president, Nasscom, said, “In recognition of the transformative impact of IT on the indian economy and the government’s  vision of make in India, we believe that there is an equal opportunity for India to win the next wave of electronics design led manufacturing. Through this partnership, we are confident to create the right ecosystem to build a foundation for Indian companies to take the lead in this growing sector.”