
NEW DELHI: India's electronics sector has largely focused on assembly, with limited progress in design and component manufacturing, according to the Economic Survey for 2024-25.
The survey, tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Friday, also noted that India holds 4 per cent of the global electronics market share.
“The industry has largely focused on assembly, with limited progress in design and component manufacturing,” reads the survey.
The report highlights that India’s electronics sector has seen significant growth in domestic production, exports, and imports over the past decade. Domestic production of electronic goods has surged from Rs 1.90 lakh crore in FY15 to Rs 9.52 lakh crore in FY24, growing at an impressive annual rate of 17.5 per cent.
India has also greatly reduced its dependence on smartphone imports, with 99 per cent of smartphones now being produced locally.
In FY24, India produced around 33 crore mobile phone units, with more than 75 per cent of those being 5G-enabled. This growth in production is largely driven by initiatives like Make in India and Digital India, alongside improved infrastructure, a more business-friendly environment, and various government incentives. These factors have boosted domestic manufacturing and attracted foreign investments.
“The key drivers of growth have been the large domestic market, the availability of skilled talent, and low-cost labour,” reads the survey.
Another major factor in the sector’s growth is the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, which has been rolled out in 14 key sectors. The PLI aims to boost domestic manufacturing by scaling up assembly processes and supporting the existing ecosystem.
The scheme has already yielded impressive results: In FY15, mobile phone imports made up 78 per cent of the market in value terms. By FY23, this figure had dropped to just 4 per cent. In terms of volume, only 0.8 per cent of mobile phones were imported in FY23. Exports have seen a dramatic increase as well, with mobile phone exports rising from zero in FY16 to Rs 88,726 crore in FY23.
In the white goods sector, the PLI scheme is also helping to boost domestic value addition, aiming to raise it from 15 to 20 per cent to 75 to 80 per cent.