Investments/ Developments
Major Government initiatives such as ‘Digital India’, ‘Make in India’ and supportive policies including favorable FDI Policy for electronics manufacturing have simplified the process of setting up manufacturing units in India.
Post COVID, the Government of India aims to increase India’s contribution by around US$ 400 billion worth of electronics goods including exports worth US$ 120 billion, which would account for 9-10% of the overall global value chains, from the current supply potential of 1-2%.
Union Budget 2023-24 has allocated Rs. 16,549 crore (US$ 2 billion) for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, which is nearly 40% higher on year. The budget for FY23 had allocated Rs. 14,300 crore (US$ 1.73 billion) for the IT ministry.
The first-of-its-kind in India Electropreneur Park (EP) set up by MEITY and IESA started in 2016 and created 51 hardware products, 51 patents, and 23 startups were funded. The EP will grow to be a hub with 20 spoke centres aimed to promote innovation and create unicorns in ESDM by offering access to a holistic ecosystem to accelerate the government’s flagship schemes like Startup India and Make in India.
STPI Signs MoUs to strengthen tech startup ecosystem: AIC STPINEXT Initiatives (STPINEXT), a special purpose vehicle of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), an organisation under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has signed two memorandums of understanding (MoUs), one with HDFC Bank, and another with Excelpoint Systems India Pvt. Ltd., a niche technology player for fostering entrepreneurship and nurturing tech startups in the country. These partners would play critical role in supporting and handholding the startups in the growth journey through technical guidance & assistance, mentoring, pitching to investors, funding support, and market connect & access etc.
Some of the investments/ developments in the Electronics System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) sector in the recent past are as follows:
- The cumulative FDI equity inflow in the Electronics industry is US$ 3.71 billion during the period April 2000 to September 2022.
- Exports of electronic goods stood at US$ 2,009.07 million in September 2022.
- Imports of electronics goods stood at US$ 7,142.3 million in September 2022.
- In November 2022, Voltas entered into a technology license agreement with Denmark’s Vestfrost Solutions to develop, manufacture, sell and service medical refrigeration and vaccine storage equipment including ice lined refrigerators, vaccine freezers and ultra-low temperature freezers to the India market.
- Voltas announced plans of Rs. 400 crore (US$ 50.10 million) capex under PLI scheme to manufacture components for white goods in May 2022.
- In March 2022, Reliance announced that it would invest US$ 220 million in a joint venture with Sanmina Corp, a US- listed company for making electronic products in the Asian countries.
- According to sources, Apple Inc. in 2021 manufactures 70% of mobile phones sold in India, a sharp increase from 30% recorded two years ago. This is a significant push towards the “Make in India” initiative, following the government's Production-linked Incentive (PLI) plan, which began in FY21.
- In September 2021, tech giant Lenovo announced plans to ramp up manufacturing capabilities in India across various product categories, such as PCs, notebooks and smartphones, due to rising consumer demand. However, details of the investment were not disclosed.
- In September 2021, PG Electroplast, a contract manufacturer of electronic goods, announced that it had applied for a PLI scheme and pledged to invest Rs. 300 crore (US$ 40.47 million) towards the production of air conditioner components.
- Intel has invested over US$ 7 billion in design and R&D facilities in the country to date.
- As of March 03, 2021, 19 companies have filed for the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for IT Hardware. The scheme was open for applications until April 30, 2021; its incentives will be available from April 01, 2021. Over the next four years, the scheme is expected to lead to total production of ~Rs. 160,000 crore (US$ 21.88 billion). Of the total production, IT hardware companies have proposed production of >Rs. 135,000 crore (US$ 18.46 billion); and domestic companies have proposed production of >Rs. 25,000 crore (US$ 3.42 billion).
- The government has set a target to get ~Rs. 18,000 crore (US$ 2.4 billion) investments in the electronics manufacturing segment by 2021-22.
- On February 16, 2021, Amazon announced that it will commence manufacturing of electronics products from India with Cloud Network Technology, a subsidiary of Foxconn in Chennai, later in the year. The device manufacturing programme will be able to produce ‘Fire TV Stick’ devices in large quantities every year, catering to demands of customers in India.