Ashwini Vaishnaw launches Semicon 2.0 portal, says 50% of units approved under ECMS are SMES, MSMEs

New Delhi [India], November 6 (ANI): Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday launched the Semicon 2.0 Web Application Portal and announced that 50 per cent of the units approved under the Electronics Components Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) belong to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) or micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Speaking at the launch event, Vaishnaw said the government would begin accepting applications under pillars two, three and four of the semiconductor programme, marking another step towards strengthening India's electronics and semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem.
"A lot of design expertise is getting building up lots of new things are coming...lots of new things are coming, and today onwards we'll start receiving the applications for the pillar two, three, and four," he said, adding that "50 per cent of the units approved are SMEs or MSMEs."
Vaishnaw emphasised that India's electronics manufacturing journey has gradually progressed from assembling finished products to manufacturing modules, components and raw materials, helping deepen domestic capabilities across the value chain. 
Recalling the initial phase of India's mobile phone manufacturing journey, he said, "When we started the mobile phone journey. journey, people used to laugh at us. People used to think that because we have an assembly, or screwdriver technology, all kinds of things."
Explaining the government's approach, Vaishnaw said the objective was to systematically move towards higher levels of manufacturing integration rather than remain dependent on assembling finished products.
"The journey was to go step by step from finished product to the modules, to the components, to the materials," he said. 
The Minister also highlighted India's growing capabilities in manufacturing critical electronics components and materials, including battery cells, copper foils and copper-clad laminates used in printed circuit boards (PCBs)
"Today we are making the entire battery cell. We are making copper foils. We are making copper-clad laminates for PCBs. In a sense, throughout that value chain, we are going deep with each program, with each approval," he added. (ANI)