Communicating Love, Peace and Truth

Mahatma Gandhi inspires love, peace and truth in all parties of WWII and others when he says, “If you want to give a message, it must be a message of Love, it must be a message of Truth. I want to capture your hearts. Let your hearts clap in unison with what I’m saying. A friend asked yesterday ‘did I believe in One World?’ How can I possibly do otherwise? Of course I believe in One World!”. A beautiful Telecom Italia Ad of 2004 showed the message being played across all possible audio and/or visual media across the globe and ends with a tagline, “If only he could have communicated like this”. So true!

One of the most important aspects for development and advancement of Human civilization has been Communication. The powerful ideas that shaped and advanced religion, science, politics etc. had a combination of person(s) and technology working together. A successful mass communication can be viewed as the process of creating and sharing ideas, information, views, facts, feelings, etc. among masses to reach a common understanding. A leader may be highly qualified and skilled but if (s)he does not possess good communication skills and knack to use the right technology, all these become irrelevant.

Mann ki Baat, a radio programme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has proven to be one successful experiment of mass communication. It has helped him to establish dialogue with citizens on issues of day to day governance. Through this monthly broadcast he has been able to reach the masses across the country and has also provided every citizen the opportunity to connect, suggest, and become part of participatory governance. As per the audience data measured by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) of Television Channels, the cumulative reach of viewership of the programme has been estimated to range from approximately 6 crore to 14.35 crores during the period 2018 to 2020. Prasar Bharati broadcasts this programme in 23 languages and 29 dialects on its AIR Network. In addition, Prasar Bharati also telecasts the visualised versions of this programme in Hindi and other languages on its various DD channels. This programme is also broadcast by approximately 91 private satellite TV channels on Cable and DTH platforms across the country. PBNS & DP helps with messaging on social media platforms and also through “NewsOnAir” mobile application and website.

According to a US-based global leader approval tracker, Morning Consult, PM Modi continues to be world’s most popular leader with an approval rating of 71% of India’s adult population, much ahead of Italy’s Draghi (60%), USA’s Biden(43%) or Australia’s Morrison (41%). He has seen a significant jump in the number of supporters since the worst of second wave of Covid-19 in May 2021, when it was 63%. Remarkable aspect of his popularity as a leader is the low and declining number of disapprovers (May 2021: 31% to Jan 2022: 21%). Clearly, masses are connecting with his message that “In the eyes of the world, being prime minister and chief minister may be a very big thing but in my own eyes, these are ways to do something for the people”. More than a crore postcards received from youngsters for his MKB is proof of connect with Gen Y and Z and perhaps even with Gen Alpha.

As for the medium of MKB, Radio is going to be back when roads allow large number of long distance travelling feasible . With tools like podcasts, streaming services over Satellite internet and Satellite Radio, the technology can prove to be an instrument of peace. The access which the Mahatma lacked in the struggle for Independence is now available to be exploited not only for commercial use but also for spreading the right word about humanity and coexistence of communities. In a future ready setup for radio technologies by moving from conventional networking over terrestrial hops to satellite routes bolstered with a wide array of optical networks, one can truly establish a meaningful global village. In Radio broadcasts, from Air Waves to Space waves is the future, From Aakashvani to Antrikshvani!

 

Technological leap in mass activities

Framers of Indian Constitution have set forth an enormous and unique challenge of simultaneously completing India’s triple transition across social, political and economic fields. India is one rare country of this size and complexity that has taken on the challenge of getting on to the three transitions together. Technological advancements and India’s ability to execute gigantic projects have allowed the country to score many wins. Timely and transparent conduct of elections is well noted and appreciated across the world, so is the quick and large scale adoption of ATMs, digital payment methods and online train ticket booking systems. Recent success of world’s largest vaccination program highlights India’s increasing prowess of large scale digital enabled on-ground activities execution. One such domain on the horizon is faceless tax assessment.

Covid has disrupted many processes, yet it provided an opportunity, almost forcibly, to expand the horizons of digital-ready processes to flourish. By eliminating the physical interface between assessee and the tax officer to the extent technologically feasible, the faceless scheme launched in 2020 has led to a very high level of transparency to the process of assessment of income tax. This has resulted in significant time and energy savings for the taxpayers and brought in transparency and credibility to the government. Close analogy to this is online ticket booking, where an individual had to spend hours queueing up for tickets or pay hefty commission to agents. As online ticket booking had shown that the Indian consumer is savvy, so is online faceless assessment showing that Indian taxpayers are savvy.

National e-Assessment Centre (NeAC) facilitates and centrally controls e-assessment. Regional assessment centres are in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Each of these centres have four units – assessment, verification, technical and review. Assessment units identify issues, seek information and analyse material to frame draft assessment orders. Verification units make enquiries, examine books of accounts and witnesses, and record statements. Technical units provide services such as advice on legal, accounting, forensic, information technology, etc. Review units check whether or not the facts, relevant evidence and low and judicial decisions have been considered in the draft order.

Surely, the digitisation of tax processing requires individuals and businesses to have the documents and information in electronic form, as well as the credentials of income tax portal to be regularly used for notices and filings. What has all this resulted into – “CBDT issues refund of over ₹1,62,448Cr to more than 1,79,00,000 taxpayers from 1st April, 2021 to 24th Jan, 2022. Income Tax refund of ₹57,754Cr have been issued in 1,77,35,899 cases, and Corporate Tax refund of ₹1,04,694Cr have been issued in 2,23,952 cases. This includes 1.41Cr refunds of AY 2021-22 amounting to ₹27,111Cr.”

Faceless assessment And Taxpayers Chartered provisions are paving way for manifold increase in number of filed returns and reduction of scrutiny needs. The structure of faceless taxation shows the modular approach to structure such tasks, perhaps the recipe for large scale implementations!

Atmanirbhar GDP Growth Rate


“To reflect an improving investment outlook with private investment, particularly manufacturing, benefiting from the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme, and increases in infrastructure investment”, it has upgraded India’s growth numbers to 8.7% in FY 2022-23 and 6.8% in FY 2023-24- says the World Bank.

Back in November 2021 itself, a Finance Ministry report had said that, “India is on its way to becoming the fastest-growing major economy in the world … Armed with the necessary macro and micro growth drivers, the stage is set to kickstart India’s investment cycle and catalyze its recovery towards becoming the fastest growing economy in the world”. The survey had said that growth will be supported by a supply-side push from reforms and easing of regulations, emphasis on infrastructural investment, boost to manufacturing sector through production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes, recovery in demand, rise in discretionary consumption after the rollout of vaccines and pick-up in the credit given adequate liquidity and low-interest rates. All these are resulting in less demand-supply mismatch and more job opportunities.

PLI schemes are proving to be a very strong pillar of Aatmanirbhar Bharat, clearly breaking the deadlock of jobless growth as was forecasted by experts. Now, not only India is expected to grow faster, it is more inclusive as job creation is at core of these positive developments. According to BNP Paribas Asset Management “the success of PLI is expected to add 1.7 percent to the country’s GDP by 2027”. The direct impact of these schemes is likely to be larger on labour (an estimated 2.8 million new jobs) than on capital spending (estimated at $28 billion). There is likely to be significant upstream activity as a result, driving further gains in jobs and spending.

Inclusive nature of Aatmanirbhar Bharat is evident across traditional to cutting edge tech sectors. For example, in spite of COVID-hit situation, the Tourism sector is becoming an important contributor to the country’s economy and is expected to grow at 7.1 per annum to reach Rs 12.67 lakh crore by 2028. Further, the employment in tourism industry is expected to grow at 2.1 per annum and account for 33,195,000 jobs by 2028.

Government initiatives like ‘Indigenous 5G Test Bed Project’ at a cost of Rs 224 crore and allocation of spectrum for 5G testing to Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea and MTNL to meet future technology needs in the telecom sector with ethos of Atmanirbhar Bharat, have shown positive results even for a utility sector like telecom, which is predicted to contribute 8% of India’s GDP in 2022, up from current 6.5%. Of all cutting edge technologies that drive socio-economic impact, artificial intelligence is well on its way to becoming the strongest contender to drive future growth. While still in its nascent stage, AI is projected to add $ 500 billion to India’s GDP by 2025.

 

Central Asia and New India


In 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s historic visit to Central Asian countries paved way to high-level exchanges at bilateral and multilateral forums resulting into ‘India-Central Asia Summit’ hosted by PM Modi with the participation of the Presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, in a virtual format. Among other things, leaders are also expected to discuss the evolving regional security situation. The participation of the Secretaries of National Security Councils of Central Asian countries in the Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan held in New Delhi on 10 November 2021 also outlined a common regional approach to Afghanistan.

Kazakhstan is India’s largest trading partner in Central Asia. Trade turnover in 2019 amounted to $ 1.9 billion, which is 46% higher than previous year. Further, about 700 legal entities and branches with the participation of Indian capital are registered in Kazakhstan. Surrounded by the Caspian Sea in the west to Russia in the North and China in the East, Kazakhstan the largest country in Central Asia and the ninth largest country in the world holds great significance to India especially in terms of energy resources and its economic potential and also due to its geo-strategic location. Kazakhstan is the world’s largest producer of Uranium and meets nearly 80 percent of India’s uranium requirement.

Total trade turnover between India and Uzbekistan has grown in the year 2020 stands to $442.7mn as against $355.5mn in 2019 and $286.5mn in the year 2018.

The major items of India’s exports include pharmaceutical products, mechanical equipment, vehicle parts, services, optical instruments, and equipment. While, India’s imports from Uzbekistan consist largely of fruit and vegetable products, services, fertilizers, juice products and extracts, and lubricants.The Bilateral Investment Treaty is under negotiation between both countries.

Following the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992 with Kyrgyzstan, the two countries have signed several framework agreements including on Culture, Trade and Economic Cooperation, Civil Aviation, Investment Promotion, and Protection, Avoidance of Double Taxation, Consular Convention, etc. and share common concerns on the threat of terrorism, radicalism, and drug trafficking. Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline project forms a key pillar of economic engagement between India and Turkmenistan. India-Tajikistan relations have traditionally been close and cordial. Tajikistan expressed support for India’s candidacy for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the term 2021-22. Tajikistan has publicly supported India’s bid for UN Security Council permanent membership and was a staunch supporter of India’s SCO membership.

India and Central Asia share longstanding historical, cultural, political, and economic relations. At ministerial level meetings, to improve trade relations, India has called for a focus on 4 Cs: Commerce, Capacity enhancement, Connectivity and Contacts. India has welcomed the interest of Central Asian countries to utilize the services of Shahid Beheshti Terminal at Chabahar Port for facilitating their trade with India and beyond. Continued meaningful engagement with “Extended Neighbourhood” in Central Asia is of vital importance and New India seems to have been hitting the right notes.

 

Inheritance from Constituent Assembly

Inheritance is the thread of human civilisation. After World War II, Indians inherited an independent country and a dream to tryst with destiny on the policies and principles of democracy, justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. Proof that these values worked was demonstrated by this young nation in combating the Emergency in late 70s. As digital-natives are getting ready to take succession of New India, fundamental duties need to be put at the center of debates and discussions.

On the eve of 73rd Republic Day, Honourable President in his address to the nation said, “….We are immensely fortunate that the Constituent Assembly which prepared the document included some of the best minds of their generation. They were the leading lights of our great Freedom Struggle…While the text of the Constitution, dealing with the details of the workings of the State, is quite long, the Preamble sums up its guiding principles – Democracy, Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. They form the bedrock on which our Republic stands. These are the values that form our collective inheritance. These values have been accorded primacy in our Constitution in the form of Fundamental Rights and Fundamental Duties of the citizens. Rights and duties are two sides of the same coin. The observance of the Fundamental Duties mentioned in the Constitution by the citizens creates the proper environment for enjoyment of Fundamental Rights…”

As the records of Constituent Assembly deliberations show, the present Constitution was supposed to be overhauled within a couple of decades of its enactment. Perhaps among the responsibilities for younger generations to fulfill, getting to know the constitution first hand is the most urgent one. Occasions like Republic Day need to be utilised by schools, colleges, Government bodies, enterprises, NGOs alike to encourage youngsters to engage in understanding democracy. Indian democracy is a beacon of hope for a divided, scared and suspicious world. This complex society has transcended caste, religion, region, gender and race in adopting democracy. Gen Z and Gen Alpha Indians need to know the proud inheritance they have. Further, genuine understanding needs to be developed regarding points made by the critics, that Indian Constitution has fundamentally ignored the cultural robustness as well as village level structures in its formulation of policies of governance.

 

Stressful Children in Digital Era


10 year old Pixie Curtis is an Australian entrepreneur with two profit-making businesses and is said to be retiring as a millionaire by the time she is 15. On the other hand, the youngsters who created apps like Bulli Bai and Sulli Deals have been arrested by police. Latin word for finger and toe is digitus, which transformed into digitalis and around 15th century the word digital came into being. But its wider meaning is in reference to signals or data which are expressed as a series of digits 0 and 1. Digital is about dealing with extremes, may be at extremes – and it warrants handling with care, esp for Gen Alpha.

Being an adolescent in the digital age has its risks and rewards. An alarmed, pandemic-struck world could prevent educational collapses mainly because of the online learning arrangements. But with this, parents, tutors and educational institutions have also unlocked a new dimension of cyber exposure for young learners, barely knowing what impressions it can carve, on behaviours and perspectives. Parents of these times who have handled the global panic colossally, are hard pressed to deal with the fact that the more time young ones spend on digital gadgets, lot more is also getting funnelled to non-educational engagement.

Digital-native kids are facing far greater risks due to the changing technology that is well adapted by them, but not that swiftly by parents and elderly folks. Many apps, software, online tools, and games are becoming increasingly popular among teens luring them to start businesses, buy cryptocurrencies, indulge in data-mining, and investments. Many such applications would request private data access or even money for items that are “important” to them during those digital engagements.

It is being widely acknowledged that there is sharp declines in life satisfaction amongst older adolescents who use social media passively, as in by just viewing others’ photos, as compared to those posting their own content. Many studies and surveys have revealed that psychosocial problems like depression, isolation, bodily disorders, stress, anxiety, self-esteem complex, are becoming incessantly common, due to education becoming e-education. Further, increased usage of Virtual Reality(VR) systems have an ability to create immersive and overpowering experience which, in most cases, are too strong for the teenage mind to differ between two realities – real and surreal. There are games that make these kids feel as if they are physically present on top of a very tall building and need to walk on a thin plank to get to another rooftop, others put them in a role of a fighter, a hero even, but would require them to slice off the limbs of enemies, not on a flat screen, but in a realistic sense. Many children are spending hours on games like ‘PUB-G’, ‘Call of Duty’, ‘Final Fantasy’, wonderstruck by the grandeur, action, killing and danger. Gaming apps like ‘Blue Whale’ and ‘Pokemon Go’ have resulted in suicides and other untoward incidents.

With cellphones and gadgets becoming ubiquitous, including now on the study tables, a great parental intervention is of prime importance to keep a tab of activities and handling matter at source. The problem needs much more than just IT guidelines, that APPs and Games need to allow only selective online purchases, or cyber laws and nugatory reporting frameworks. This hitherto unknown stressful situations for kids is nothing less than a worldwide IT and mental health emergency.

Extremely Cool in Extreme Cold

“No easy hope or lies
Shall bring us to our goal,
But iron sacrifice
Of body, will, and soul.
There is but one task for all
One life for each to give
Who stands if Freedom fall?” – These apt words were accompanying the viral video of an Indian soldier braving the snowstorm when guarding the border in an unflinching manner.

(https://twitter.com/proudhampur/status/1479505350323675136?s=20)

It is no wonder that every year Prime Minister Narendra Modi represents an indebted nation by celebrating Diwali with the Indian defence forces guarding the nation bravely. In 2014, PM Modi began the tradition when he paid a surprise visit to Siachen to celebrate Diwali with soldiers posted at the world’s highest battlefield (18,875-foot glacier) and saluted the role of the armed forces in guarding the country. In 2015, PM Modi was with troops at the Dograi War Memorial in Khasa in Amritsar and laid a wreath at the venue of one of the toughest battles fought and won by Indian forces on September 22, 1965. Then onwards he has been with Jawans at Kinnaur(HP) in 2016, Gurez(J&K) in 2017, Harsil (near Kedarnath) in 2018, Rajouri(J&K) in 2019, Longewala(Raj) in 2020, and Nowshera(J&K) in 2021.

These braves have been a constant source of inspiration for one and all. Recently, ‘Operation Blue Freedom’, an expedition by the people with disabilities from across India to the world’s highest battlefield, Siachen Glacier. The pioneering expedition has brought India on the global stage as a leader in empowering Divyangjan and set a benchmark for other nations to emulate. Simultaneously, the initiative has portrayed the skill and heart of India’s Armed Forces not only on the Battlefield but off it as well. The team of people with disabilities has been trained by ‘Team CLAW’, an elite team of Former Special Forces Veterans working towards creating ecosystems for people with disabilities to thrive.

Even the scientists and entrepreneurs are inspired – the Indian Army till recently, has been importing extreme cold weather clothing and several Special Clothing and Mountaineering Equipment (SCME) items for its personnel deployed in high mountain regions. DRDO has transferred the technology of indigenous extreme cold weather clothing system (ECWS) to five Indian companies, which will not only make India self-reliant in manufacturing this clothing system, but considering the widely fluctuating weather conditions, this three-layered clothing system will equip the Indian Army for undertaking continuous operations in glacier and Himalayan peaks. It is noteworthy that India takes care of the highest military battlefield on the earth – Siachen Glacier.

These and any other indigenously developed state-of-art defence technologies not only take India towards self-reliance in critical areas but will also equip our armed forces with the latest defence arsenals

It is important for every citizen of the world’s largest, most complex, and vibrant democracy to know more about national security and participate in the debate to enhance the availability of resources to meet budgetary requirements as well as training and fill the acute shortage of combat leaders. Democracy is alive only when territorial integrity is ensured by armed forces.

Freedom of History

“Every Indian, no matter where he may be living at the present time, has a duty towards this country…” These words of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose inspired the diaspora to raise 50,000+ strong Azad Hind Fauz. More than half sacrificed their life for the country, many say that history has not done enough to aptly remember their contribution to the country’s freedom. Netaji’s birth anniversary is celebrated as Parakram Divas and Prime Minister Narendra Modi rightly said that, “Every Indian is proud of his monumental contribution to our nation”. 

Post colonial history has been rewritten across the world, India’s position has been peculiar though. Rewriting has been both process and product, and is often associated with the theoretical approach toward the study of postcolonial literatures suggested by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin in their seminal work “The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures” (1989). World over the post colonial rewriting has mainly been about canonical literature where the writer is seen as belonging to a culture on the margins of the imperial center, and the content is viewed as a western cultural production. The writers having completely adopted the colonial education system, pay homage to their western masters as well as attempt to refute their assumptions. India, though having very rich heritage of original texts of all kinds, seems to have followed the similar methodology so far as other parts of the world. Perhaps, the rewriting needs to happen again by completely abandoning the colonial overhang. A caution many countries have started to take.

The book “Promises to Keep” talks about extraordinary feat of Indian slaves on the Island nation of Mauritius where “The Bissoondoyal movement was breathtaking in what is encompassed in relation to the very limited resources that it had: it embraced social reform, political, economic and social emancipation, cultural revival and education both of the individual and of the people.” Yet, the author says it is not to be seen as a work of history.

Another important factor in rewriting biases is induced by the colonial mindset of normative and source-oriented mindset. The official versions of history that exist in the colonial archives often do not account for the versions of the victims of history, including women and natives. This has been the main issue in South Africa, where a Britisher by the name of Guy Butler played a key role in establishing the National English Literary Museum (NELM) and a reports says, “Given this indication of the inherent ideological power of the archive, and given that in previously colonized countries colonial rule was often asserted through assiduous record keeping, it becomes necessary to investigate critically the action of founding, adding to, or engaging with ‘archive’ in the way that Butler was consciously doing in the 1970s.”

On the 125th birth anniversary, questions regarding Netaji’s end days, whether they were in Taiwan or Siberia, are being asked again, and archives of India, Taiwan, Japan, UK, America and Russia need to be cautiously explored to find out the truth.

 

Information, Disinformation, Fake News

“…the government is responsible for Bipin Rawat’s death, Bipin Rawat’s daughter is accepting Islam, the North Korean army is going to Kashmir, etc. What sort of nonsense is this!,” while addressing a press conference, Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Secretary Apurva Chandra stated. “We have used the provision of section 69A of the IT Act to block these (Pakistani)channels under the emergency provisions as their contents were totally toxic…”

 

The government has ordered the blocking of 35 channels on online video-sharing platforms YouTube and 2 websites. These websites were engaged in spreading anti-India propaganda and fake news on the Internet in a coordinated manner through digital media. YouTube accounts blocked by the Ministry had a total subscriber base of over 1 crore 20 lakh, and their videos had over 130 crore views.

 

Disinformation is a more generic term and is prevalent across almost all walks of life, some accidentally and some by design. Disinformation causes fake news is well illustrated by the classical example from the greatest epic, Mahabharata. In the middle of the war Yudhisthira, whose honesty could be counted upon, shouted अश्वत्थामा हतः इित नरो वा कुं जरो वा ( Ashwatthama is dead, not sure if its the man or the elephant). His formidable enemy creating the havoc was none other than his teacher Dronacharya who dearly loved his son by the name of Ashwatthama. The noise of the battleground caused him to hear only the first half of the utterance from Yudhisthira and was enough to sink him in deep sorrow, dropping the weapons and getting killed. Disinformation caused by noise in the system turned out to be fake news causing ultimate damage for the unsuspecting father.

 

 Social media has leveraged digital connectivity & reach to make societies more democratic as the source of information is distributed now. One can argue that fake news is an inherent problem of this powerful technology and needs to be carefully understood and dealt with by media houses, regulatory bodies, and society at large. During covid times, the massive slowdown in print and electronic media content generation and consumption has cleared the way for the accelerated growth of digital news. With this, the menace of fake news has become a nightmare with utmost urgency to be dealt with.

More than Chipping In

Posts of CEO, CTO and CFO have just been advertised for ISM. India Semiconductor Mission(ISM) is an independent and specialised nodal agency being set up by the Government of India with a mandate to drive strategies for the development of a sustainable semiconductor and display ecosystem. These and many other posts are expected to rope in global experts to contribute to nation-building.

Today’s digitization race-winning strategy requires new electronic systems whose power consumption is low and battery backup is high, speed is very high and new designs should roll out fast, and of course, all of it should be affordable for the masses.

VLSI or very large scale integration is the stream of electronics that helps in achieving these systems by shrinking their size that is used in remotes of television, cell phone, microwave oven, AC, washing machines, Cars, space ships, aviation, weather forecast, satellites, defence and many other domains of modern life.

So far India manufactures chips for defence and space research at fabs present within IISc, SCL Mohali, and few others places. Large scale manufacturing for consumer electronics and other high-tech industries though is altogether a different ball game. The technical complexity of the domain, huge investment requirements, availability of the purest form of silica ( raw material), very stringent cleanliness requirements at the manufacturing site as well as huge water and uninterrupted power supply needs of this industry pose a real challenge for India to match the competition of Taiwan, South Korea and China.

IIT Kharagpur has one of the first VLSI labs in India, where R&D efforts in this domain and chip design seem to have come to an age with the Centre of Excellence in Nanoelectronics at IIS Bangalore, IIT Bombay and other institutions doing excellent work. Domestic semiconductor consumption has been consistently growing at a healthy rate and the need of the hour is accelerated progress on setting up chip manufacturing companies (also known as fab). In addition to meeting the challenges of technical complexity, Investment requirement is huge for any semiconductor fab unit. The electronic sector is one of the domains where 100% FDI is allowed under automatic route. Chipmakers are likely to get support beyond normal PLIs if they are really committed to India.

Aatmanirbharta Bharat is clearly aiming to cover the lost ground and make India one of the leaders in this essential domain of modern civilisation. Ministry of Electronics and Information (MeitY) has sought applications from 100 academia, R&D organisations, start-ups and MSMEs under its Chips to Startup (C2S) Programme. A Cabinet committee chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had initiated this program to usher in a new era in electronics manufacturing by providing a globally competitive incentive package to companies in semiconductors and display manufacturing as well as design.