New Update
A phased manufacturing plan to encourage manufacturing of electronic components and other than mobile phones is needed to get executed by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), suggested a recent ASSOCHAM-NECTI joint study.
“As domestic value addition has increased for mobile phones, similar plans are needed to encourage manufacturing of components which are the core ingredients in the overall increase of domestic value addition,” noted the study titled ‘Electricals & electronics manufacturing in India,’ jointly conducted by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) and NEC Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.
Noting that India lags in component manufacturing, which is the most fundamental block in electronic devices, the report stated that country should focus on reducing component imports and increasing local value addition to becoming a manufacturing hub.
Though the union government is driving reform in IT and electronics manufacturing sector through initiatives like ‘Make in India’ and creating favorable policies to enable an investor-friendly environment, the component ecosystem has not taken foothold due to unfavorable scale factor in establishing commercial viability.
“Limited fresh investments are coming into the country, due to which existing plants are running at a sub-optimal capacity,” highlighted the ASSOCHAM-NECTI report.
Considering that India holds a very small share in the global electronics market, the manufacturers should aim to capture a larger piece of the global market by focusing more towards exports.
Further, the report said that there is a huge opportunity for manufacturers and foreign companies to invest in India’s electrical and electronics manufacturing to achieve government’s target of $400 bn electronics market.