Encouraging India as the Manufacturing Hub

Release of knowledge report at ASSOCHAM 8th International Conference on Electrical and Electronics Manufacturing

Anew electronics policy, with focus on import substitution is on the cards. Assocham recently organized the 8th International Conference on Electricals and Electronics Manufacturing in New Delhi. The underlying theme was the future roadmap of the growth of electronics industry and India emerging as a manufacturing hub.

Key speakers included SS Ahluwalia, Minister of State for Electronics & IT; Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary, MeitY; DS Rawat, Secretary General, Assocham; Sandeep Khurana, CTO, NEC Technologies India; Kamal Arora, Senior Director, Dell EMC India; and Pranab Kumar Das, Special Secretary and Member (Customs), CBEC, Sandeep Jajodia, President, Assocham; Swati Rangachari, Chief of Corporate Affairs, Sterlite Technologies; Manish Sharma, President and CEO, Panasonic India and President, CEAMA; Dhruv Aggarwal, Managing Director, Paramount Wires and Cable; and Rajiv Mahajan, Senior Vice President, Tejas Networks Ltd.

The session also saw the release of a knowledge report on electricals and electronics manufacturing in India. Key topics of the conference included industry outlook; e-waste and reuse and refurbished goods – organizing the unorganized; and trade regulations and policy – export oriented or import substituted.

“To ensure survival in today’s competitive world, India needs to compete with other technologically advanced countries like China, Japan, the US, and others. While there is no dearth of talent in India, the government is constantly creating requisite policies and atmosphere to promote electronics manufacturing in the country. Youth needs to be trained and skilled; certificates merely will not make them employable.”

SS Ahluwalia
Minister of State for Electronics & IT, Government of India

“The time is ripe for India to position and prepare itself to become more competitive and start building exports and not just for mobile segments. There are a number of segments where the country has grown significantly over the past 3-5 years. There is a need to position India as not only a manufacturing hub but as a hub for design, innovation, and manufacturing. As the electronics ecosystem is completed and the gap is filled, it will be possible to combine existing strength in design and software with the emerging strength that the country is acquiring in the entire ecosystem of electronics. India continues to be a huge market for electronics and the demand is growing roughly at around 20 percent y-o-y and is expected to continue this kind of huge growth. When India had started assembly of mobile phones in 2014-15, there were about 60 million units being assembled with a value of around `19,800 crore. This moved y-o-y to 115 million in 2015-16, 175 million in 2016-17, 225 million in 2017-18 and now with an overall value of `1.32 lakh crore in a matter of 3 years. MeitY expects that this year India would be able to attract about 400 SMT lines, marking a very significant increase in number of SMT lines that exist. Once the SMT lines, electronics subsystems, camera modules, displays, audio, and others come in and become part of Indian ecosystem, they are the same things that go into anything electronic, India would be able to make not just mobile phones but almost everything confidently”.

Ajay Prakash Sawhney
Secretary, MeitY, Government of India