About 66% of FDI in electronics, manufacturing happened over last 3 years: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

About 66% of the foreign direct investment (FDI) in electronics and manufacturing has come in over the last three years, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Wednesday.

In the next six to seven years, India will be a $1 trillion digital economy, he said at the Global Investors Meet (GIM) Invest Karnataka 2022, a year that marks two and a half decades of Karnataka's thrust in the information technology (IT) sector.

Opportunities in the technology ecosystem have moved from services to innovation and startups, semiconductor manufacturing, microelectronics design, Web 3.0, and artificial intelligence, he said.


“We're excited by the launch of 5G services by operators like Airtel, Jio and Vodafone in the country,” Chandrasekhar said.

On the tech talent crunch, the minister said companies should address the dearth of technology talent by moving operations to tier 2 and tier 3 cities. “There is less pressure on infrastructure and more availability of talent there,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Wipro chairman Rishad Premji also said new sources of talent had to be found from tier 2 and tier 3 cities, instead of competing for the same talent pool that has resulted in high attrition rates at Indian tech companies.