Indian electronics industry wants PLI scheme for laptops and tablets

The electronics industry wants the Indian government to extend its recent production linked incentive (PLI) scheme to laptop and tablet manufacturing as well. In a report titled “Aatmanirbhar Bharat: India’s Turning Point”, the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) on Wednesday said manufacturing laptops and tablets in the country could be a $100 billion opportunity for India.

Other than the PLI scheme, the ICEA also recommended that a “conducive policy environment” under Special Economic Zones (SEZs) be created for this sector and asked the government to address other disabilities for the sector, beyond the PLI scheme.

The new PLI scheme from the Indian government offers manufacturers 4-6% incentive for manufacturing mobile phones and their components in the country. While this scheme is expected to be extended to other industries eventually, it has been given only to mobile manufacturers right now. “The global market for these two products (laptops and tablets) is expected to be largely around US$ 220 billion per year over the next five years. In India, the market size is estimated to continue to be around US$ 7 billion for the same period,” said the report.

According to the report, India imports 87% of its laptops and 63% of its tablets from China right now. It also said that the compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) for computer hardware in the country has been 3.8% between 2014-15 and 2019-20, which is low compared to the 64% CAGR for mobile phones and 23.5% for the overall electronics industry. The report also says that India suffers a cost disability of 7.52-9.5% against Vietnam and 17.32-19% against China, for local manufacturing of laptops and tablets.

“This presents an opportunity for India to ramp up the export of ‘Made in India’ laptops and tablets. By making in India for the world and obtain a sizable share of the global market will give us a manufacturing value of US$ 100 billion by 2025. It will also create 5 lakh additional jobs and a cumulative inflow of foreign exchange to the tune of US$ 75 billion; and investment of over US$ 1 billion. At the same time, it would negate imports of targeted products from China leading to the reduced trade deficit and greater self-reliance”, said Pankaj Mohindroo, Chairman, ICEA (India Cellular & Electronics Association). Livemint