Moving From Assembly To Manufacturing Base

Lower dependence on imports will lead to greater demand for Make-in-India electronics products and boost employment

- MANISH SHARMA

If you were to ask me, what is the one thing that’s critical to drive the Atma Nirbhar Bharat agenda for the electronics industry, component manufacturing ecosystem will sit right on top. To drive the key tenets of Atma Nirbhar Bharat, from the Appliances, Consumer Electronics (ACE) or the electronics industry’s perspective, component manufacturing becomes the bedrock of the ecosystem. The market size of India’s ACE industry was ₹76,400 crore ($10.93 billion) in 2019. It is expected to double to reach ₹1.48 lakh crore ($21.18 billion) by 2025. Component manufacturing not only gives the necessary impetus to the industry, but also provides a major boost to the economy at large. Reduced dependencies on import lead to greater demand for Make-in-India and employment generation, including training and skilling India.

Opportunities And Challenges

Looking at the current manufacturing economies in Asia, it has taken decades for the industry and the government to reach the current levels. From establishing a supply chain to achieving economies of scale in manufacturing, it has been a journey of discovery for China and other South East Asian countries. If I have to take Panasonic’s example, we have been running manufacturing operations in Thailand and Malaysia for several decades and are exporting air conditioners from there to more than 50 countries.

India’s demography, manufacturing, and trade landscapes differ significantly compared to other countries and hence, opportunities and challenges go hand-in-hand. The sector does have challenges related to domestic supply chain, high cost of finance and limited design capabilities. Also, our journey to building India as a manufacturing hub is new compared to the rest.