Electronics Manufacturing In India: The Current Outlook

As ‘Make in India’ and Digital India prospects grow, the government targets increased electronics manufacturing.

India is one of the fastest developing economies in the world, but it lacks the edge of a competitive electronics sector. Despite the high reliance on imports, India’s electronics sector has witnessed rapid growth in recent years. Technological innovations like the rollout of 4G/ LTE (long-term evolution) networks and IoT have accelerated the adoption of electronic products in the country. It is even expected that the consumer electronics and appliances market in India will become the fifth largest in the world by 2025.

India is witnessing significant changes in its policies, mainly related to the regulatory and business conditions. The government introduced reforms to improve India’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ rankings by launching initiatives such as ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’ to bolster domestic manufacturing. An updated National Policy for Electronics (NPE) 2019, was recently released and is likely to bring about further policy changes for the industry. India’s growth story is set for a significant boost in the electronics domain, as the changing policies and new regulatory norms will create a conducive business environment.

The NPE 2019 predicts that the demand for electronics in India will rise significantly over the coming years. To reduce the foreign exchange outflow caused by the import of electronics, it is critical to promote domestic manufacturing in this industry. Therefore, the government has identified electronics and hardware manufacturing as a focus sector.