One of the stakeholders says that though the volume has grown, trickling down of benefits will take time
As per the relevant industry players, the electronics repair market offers a big business opportunity worth $20 billion in the coming years. The main factor cited behind such a hike is the rising demand for all kinds of refurbished gadgets.
Founder of HCL and chairperson of the Electronic Products Innovation Consortium (EPIC) Foundation, Ajai Chowdhry believes that there is an expanding market for electronics refurbishing and repair services. Saying that just the refurbishment market for smartphones is estimated to be worth $10 billion per year, he added that put together, the electronics repair market could account for $20 billion.
Earlier this month, Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT) presented the benefits and future scope of these services to the union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. Nitin Kunkolienker, president emeritus of MAIT, opines that incentivizing local manufacturing of components is critical for such services to flourish in an economy.
Kunkolienker stated: “One of the key aspects of promoting a homegrown repair services economy is to ensure that the components are being sourced locally, which has not happened extensively so far. India has a robust supply chain that caters to various industries, which can diversify to procure and manufacture components that are critical for a local repair economy to grow.”
Nitin Gupta, the CEO of electronic waste recycling firm Attero India, said the company has seen a clear growth in the volume of e-waste that it collects and recycles every year though the benefits of these actions have not trickled down to companies in India so far.
As India needs to formalize the domestic market for third-party repair and refurbishment of electronic items, Chowdhry opines that initiatives such as Flipkart’s acquisition of refurbishing and repair services startup, Yantra, earlier this year are crucial baby steps. Other example includes the Onsite-Go and Urban Company’s partnership, which provides at-home repair services for smartphones, laptops and other common gadgets.
