The presentation, made in December, analysed the shift in India’s global supply position over more than a decade. During 2013-16, around 78 per cent of India’s electronics imports came from overseas suppliers, mainly China. In 2017-21, the focus shifted to import substitution by expanding domestic manufacturing, the MNC pointed out. Between 2022 and 2027, India is building export-led strategic resilience by scaling production and integrating with global markets. From 2028 onwards, the company said, India’s electronics sector is expected to become export and supply-chain-led, making it “strategically indispensable”. As for China, its export competitiveness has been driven by factors such as zero import duties on inputs, ready plug-and-play infrastructure, low-cost capital, and government subsidies, the company said. China built its supply chain in three stages–from the 1980s onwards, it grew through manufacturing by global brands such as Honda, Toyota, HP and Dell. From the 1990s onwards, it started building domestic companies. From the 2000s, Chinese brands such as Geely, SAIC, BYD, Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and Huawei scaled up globally.
While stating that the world is dependent on the Chinese supply chain, the company explained that China’s manufacturing ecosystem benefited from ready plug-and-play infrastructure, which reduced setup time and operational risks. In addition, access to low-cost capital enabled companies to make large, long-term investments, and policies that reward scale and exports encouraged firms to expand production and compete aggressively in global markets.
India’s approach to building an electronics manufacturing ecosystem has been “strategic” and phased, the company said. It pointed to the launch of the semiconductor mission in 2022 to develop domestic chip-making capabilities, the IT Hardware Production Linked Incentive (PLI) 2.0 scheme from 2023 to boost local manufacturing of laptops and servers, the smartphone PLI scheme introduced in 2021 to scale up handset production and exports, and the Electronics Components Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) from 2025 to deepen localisation of key components.
On India’s smartphone PLI scheme, the company said global value chains (GVCs) and Indian companies are working together to build strategic indispensability in smartphone manufacturing.
It said the scheme has increased the sector’s contribution to GDP by scaling up domestic production and exports, while also reducing supply chain vulnerabilities by lowering dependence on imports. Describing the smartphone PLI scheme as a major source of skilled manufacturing jobs, the company listed out the many opportunities that it offers to micro, small and medium enterprises.
