From Make in India to global dominance

To become a global manufacturing hub, India needs to focus on new-generation electronics, deepen R&D, ally with Taiwan, and create self-resilient products

- AJAI CHOWDHRY

The last few years have seen the government take major steps to encourage the manufacturing of electronics in India. The production-linked incentive scheme, a string of reforms in the last decade, and the move away from China towards a safe India have provided the catalyst needed for electronics growth in the country. The next step is to build our products and get into product ownership to usher in a new era of Make in India products that are 100% repairable and upgradable, and support the vision of a robust growth nation catering and supporting a circular economy to the global market as well.

According to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, electronics manufacturing in India will balloon to USD 300 billion in 2026 from USD 68 billion at present. We must rapidly transform India into a manufacturing hub for new-generation electronics products with minimal dependence on foreign components. To see real change, we need to deepen research and development. Taiwan helped create China as a product nation. There is a need to ally with Taiwan to learn from them. What makes us truly unique is that not only do we know how to design hardware, but we also know how to integrate software into hardware.

Let me give examples of some products that will help scale up our product self-resilience and kick-start job creation for high-end value jobs and blue-collar workers.

NEW PRODUCTS, NEWER MARKETS