With production of electronics and smartphones growing in the country, the government is planning to boost the exports of made in India electronics by preparing a framework that increases the competitiveness of such products, reported The Indian Express.
The framework, which is expected to be in place by next month, includes efforts to improve the ease of doing business for electronic manufacturers and address concerns such as cost of financing, logistics, and bringing the entire supply chain ecosystem of production to India.
“In the last four years, number of smartphone units manufactured every year has gone up from 6 crores to 11.5 crore to 17.5 crore to 22.5 crore now. Soon it will exceed the annual domestic demand of 35 crore and we want manufacturing to still be viable after that. Now is the right time to address the issues pertaining to exports of smartphones and other electronics. We are working on a framework to accelerate electronic exports. This includes areas such as ease of doing business, addressing problems such as cost of financing, logistics, etc to make Indian market competitive not just here but globally,” a senior official of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said to The Indian Express.
Separately, the ministry is also working on a broader national electronics manufacturing policy to promote domestic production of electronic goods.
The plan to focus on making India a hub for electronic exports was first suggested by Niti Aayog in 2016, which pointed out that at $6 billion annual electronic exports, India had less than 1 per cent share in the world markets. “Indian electronic industry does not present a picture of strength.
With the skilled labour force that the country has, the industry should be a significant force in the world market. But it has not done well in competing with imports even in its own home market,” Niti Aayog had said in its document titled ‘Make in India Strategy for Electronic Products’.
