An inter-ministerial panel under the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), will release a policy next month to boost cellphone manufacturing in India, reports the Economic Times. This will be followed by another policy for the electronics ecosystem; expected in the next 2-3 months, the report said. This development came after IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that a task force will be set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Technology (MEITY), to "regularly interact" with the electronics industry, per a report in The Hindu. The task force - headed by the Niti Aayog - will have five secretaries from MEITY, DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce, Department of Economic Affairs and the Revenue Department. Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant reportedly said the task force will release its report in the next 20 days, per the ET report. These comments were made after a closed-door meeting on September 16 between Prasad and CEOs of 54 electronic companies, including those of Vivo, Oppo, Qualcomm, Xiaomi, Dell and HP among others, per The Hindu. After the Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme ended last year, the electronics industry has asked for new incentives, said MEITY's Ajay Prakash Sawhney, per ET. He added that “there are three new schemes in the making, the inputs received from the industry will go into refining those policies”. 'Global players should work with Indian brands' Prasad also urged Apple and Samsung "to work as a team with domestic companies to transform India into a global powerhouse". He said that "Apple has started manufacturing iPhones and…
