The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has constituted a nine-member task force to make India a ‘product developer and manufacturing nation’, marking another step in the country’s efforts to position itself as an alternative to the likes of China and Vietnam.
The task force will be chaired by additional secretary (MeitY), Bhuvnesh Kumar with joint secretary (electronics), Amitesh Kumar Sinha as the member convenor. ET has reviewed a copy of the circular, dated March 23.
The task force includes veterans of the electronics industry in India such as Ajai Chowdhry, founder, HCL, Sunil Vachani, chairman, Dixon Technologies, Hari Om Rai, chairman, Lava International, Vivek Bansal, President Engineering, VVDN, Aman Gupta, co-founder, Boat Lifestyle, Sanjay Nayak, managing director, Tejas Networks, and Vivek Tyagi, Chairperson, IESA (India Electronics and Semiconductor Association).
According to the circular shared with the task force members, the task force will be submitting their recommendations in two months.
While the circular does not go into the details of the mission, it says the task force will be deliberating on how to propel India to be a product developer and manufacturer nation.
Industry executives in the know said the task force will look at deepening the domestic value addition in electronics manufacturing and charting the local production story beyond the ambitious production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme.
The government has been running a Rs 36,000-crore PLI scheme for smartphone manufacturing since 2020. The scheme, now in its third year, has attracted global manufacturing firms such as the Apple contact manufacturer Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron, and Korea’s Samsung, along with Indian firms such as Dixon Technologies, Lava International and more.
The aim of the scheme is to convert India into a smartphone manufacturing hub by weaning away global manufacturers from China and Vietnam to feed the domestic demand and increase exports.
"As I understand, the objective will be to increase electronics manufacturing with higher value addition," an executive in the know told ET. "While the PLI scheme gave a big push to mobile phone assembly in India, the value addition is low. Job creation has also been primarily of assembly line workers".
Local value addition by the end of this financial year is expected at around 25%, as per an ICEA and ICRIER report.
The government should now look at a scheme that encourages the design of the equipment in India, procure the components, and then do full manufacturing here, the executive said, adding that the government should encourage the chip design ecosystem to participate and create high paying jobs.