'Mega investments prove attractiveness'

NEW DELHI: Top-dollar investments by Apple and Samsung, which plan to use India as an export hub, and fund infusions by Google and Facebook amid the raging pandemic prove India's attractiveness and strong economic fundamentals, said telecom & IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad."Apple and Samsung are coming in a very big way to India. Whether it is a tech giant like Google and Facebook or whether a manufacturing giant, all are eyeing India in a big way and the so-called slowdown of coronavirus has not impacted India's potential," he told ET in an interview.Prasad was speaking a day after announcing that 22 global and Indian firms, including all three of Apple's contract manufacturers - Foxconn, Pegatron and Wistron - along with Samsung had committed investments of Rs 11,000 crore. The companies have applied for benefits under the production-linked incentive scheme (PLI), which is aimed at boosting local handset manufacturing.Facebook and Google have in past four months announced investments of $5.7 billion and $4.5 billion, respectively, in RIL's Jio Platforms. Prasad's comments are the first by a minister on these fund infusions.Pro-investment governmentThe telecom minister said it was very "assuring" that despite the Covid-induced slowdown, the "trust of global companies in India as a good investment destination has not ebbed at all". He added that the MNCs could well have chosen alternative destinations, but had selected India. "India's ability to create the right policy framework to attract global investors and its ability to serve the global markets has given it an edge over all other possible destinations," Prasad said. This also underlines the "business potential backed by a government with democratic values and one which is pro-investment".Through schemes that promise incentives worth Rs 50,000 crore, India is seeking to establish itself as a smartphone export hub rivalling Asian powerhouses such as Vietnam. New Delhi expects that manufacturers backed by the PLI scheme would make devices worth Rs 11.50 lakh crore over five years, 60% of which - products worth Rs 7 lakh crore - would be exported.Another scheme on components is expected to lead to production of goods worth Rs 45,000 crore for supply to medical electronics, automobile, industrial and other segments of electronics, besides telecom.However, top Chinese smartphone manufacturers Oppo, Realme and OnePlus, and Vivo were missing from the list of applicants, amid an anti-China sentiment in the country following heightened border tensions.

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