Govt Focusing On Boosting Manufacturing Of Electronic Components, Developing New Scheme: IT Ministry Official

S Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity), noted that the govt is also working on schemes for research and development promotion and is planning to collaborate with the industry.

The government is now focusing on enhancing the manufacturing of electronic components in India and is working on developing a new scheme regarding the same, a senior government official said on Monday. 

Addressing the CII Electronic Summit, S Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity), stated that currently the majority of the domestic mobile phone market is being catered to via local manufacturers. “99 per cent local mobile phone market is being met through domestic manufacturing, and for next phase of growth companies need to export by improving competitiveness and enhancing value addition. If our competitiveness needs to keep getting better then the challenge really is to not just rely on about 10 to 15 per cent of the value addition to assembly units in the country but to look at what else we can do, how can we move up in the value chain?,” the official said, as reported by PTI.

Krishnan further noted that no nation is ever going to completely own the entire value chain and India is currently targeting only a part of the chain. He said that the best-case scenario for India would be China, which currently controls 40 to 45 per cent of the whole value chain, which is manufactured in China. “We could possibly thinking of about somewhere in the same region of 35 to 40 per cent of the entire value chain,” he added. 

The secretary informed that the government is currently developing a second version of the incentive schemes for electronics component - Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS). Earlier, MSIPS (modified special incentive package scheme) was launched. “Now SPECS 1.0 has been implemented for components. We are working on next SPECS... That will be done after taking issues of electronics industry into consideration,” he noted. 

The official further urged the industry to look at producing capital equipment needed for electronics manufacturing at the local level. He stated that the government is also working on schemes for research and development promotion and is planning to collaborate with the industry for the same.