New Delhi, Feb 12 (IANS): Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad Thursday said his ministry has approved Rs.6,000 crore worth projects under the 'Make in India' programme.

“The Minister for Communication & IT has said that Rs.6,000 crore worth projects were approved in his ministry under the ‘Make in India’ programme out of proposals worth Rs.20,000 crore that were received,” an official statement here said.

India is at present the second largest smartphone consumer in the world after the US. The minister said lots of these electronic goods are imported. To address this issue, the Make in India programme was launched.

Rakesh Garg, secretary, Department of Telecom, emphasized on the need for frequent exchange of views among manufacturers, service providers, operators, industry and the R&D institutes to find out the shortcomings and ways to address the problems faced.

Speaking at the “Make in India-Telecom” conclave organised by the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), he said there is no dearth of talent in India but still we are hugely dependent on imports, especially in electronics and telecom.

He said research is being done in India, but intellectual property rights (IPR) are with other countries.

“Then we are buying the very same products at higher costs from those countries,” he said adding that there is a great need to make a mechanism to interact with the industry before developing technology or a solution rather than post-development.