After assembling 99% of its phones, India faces a harder manufacturing test

According to the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY), the value of India’s electronics production rose nearly fivefold to ₹9.5 trillion in 2023-24, from ₹1.9 trillion in 2014-15.

Yet, for all the triumph in scale, for India to emerge as a global manufacturing powerhouse, it has to go beyond smartphones and also break free from its role as an assembly shop.

To make mobile phones, electronic manufacturing services (EMS—or contract manufacturers) companies depend on imports of key components, including cameras, displays, high-end battery packs, semiconductors, and printed circuit boards (PCBs). Even other electronic products—smart TVs, CCTV cameras, computers, wearables, and hearables—are assembled from imported components.

If product assembly is about managing global supply chains and focuses on integration and system level performance, “manufacturing of components involves deeper scientific and engineering complexity,” says Vinod Sharma, chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)’s National Committee on Electronics Manufacturing.

PLI boost

Components are the DNA of electronics. However, the components that go into electronic goods in India are still largely sourced from China, Korea, and Taiwan. “Even now, 85–90% of the electronics component value is imported,” says a MeitY report. In 2023, only $15 billion of India’s $101 billion electronics output came from components, the report noted.

“Without component manufacturing, there is no ecosystem. You can’t make a product unless you can source the heart of it locally. Otherwise, you’re just screwing parts together,” says Sanjiv Narayan, co-founder of Syrma SGS Technology, a three-decade-old electronics manufacturing company. The ₹3,700 crore company, which exports 30% of its production, has 13 factories manufacturing electronics, automotive, telecom, and industrial electronics products, among others.

In an effort to incentivize component manufacturers and boost localization, the government launched a ₹22,919-crore Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) in April. The last date for companies to apply for benefits under the scheme is 31 July. ECMS will run for six years, from 2025-26 to 2031-32. It offers incentives for the manufacture of various components, including camera modules, displays, and multi-layer PCBs.

As CII’s Sharma put it, “Components of components need to be there. The components policy is trying to address this issue by giving incentives for creation of the local ecosystem.”

Indeed, in a release announcing the launch, MeitY stated: “The scheme aims to develop a robust component ecosystem by attracting large investments (global/domestic) in the electronics component manufacturing ecosystem, increasing domestic value addition by developing capacity and capabilities, and integrating Indian companies with global value chains.”

ECMS will run for six years, from 2025-26 to 2031-32. It offers incentives for the manufacture of various components, including camera modules, displays, and multi-layer PCBs.

ECMS envisages attracting investments to the tune of ₹59,350 crore, generating production worth ₹4.5 trillion and creating additional direct employment for 91,600, as well as many indirect jobs. It has already received 70 applications— 80% from small and mid-sized players. According to reports, large companies such as Tata Electronics, Foxconn and Dixon Technologies are among the applicants. Queries sent to MeitY are yet to elicit a response.

The scheme could provide the missing piece for expansion beyond smartphones. If implemented effectively, it will help build domestic supply chains for crucial components—an essential step in reducing dependence on imports.

While the new PLI scheme has a long list of components, India does not have expertise in all of these. Initially, it will go with electro-mechanical components such as relays, switches, fuses and capacitors, for which manufacturing is already happening locally. These are the low-hanging fruit that Indian manufacturers can go after immediately. There is local expertise in parts such as camera modules and the industry will have to bank on collaborations, or global manufacturers might set up base here to make these.

Interestingly, back in the 1980s India had a thriving components hub, with up to 80% of the black & white TVs sold in the country manufactured with locally sourced components. But later, with technology shifts, limited scale and zero import duty on components, the ecosystem for electronic parts died an early death.

Engineering complexity

For all the ambition, manufacturing components is a complex business, vastly different from assembling electronic products such as smartphones. The latter is akin to putting together 400-500 components, including cameras, sensors, a battery, memory, integrated circuits, and other parts to make a fully functional device. While all of that may seem complicated, assembling a smartphone is like a walk in the park compared to making components. To put that in context, each of the 500 or so components in a smartphone has multiple components within them.

“A manufacturer of components is dealing with far more complexity than someone who is assembling those components,” says Narayan. “It is foundational engineering. Making components requires advanced materials science capabilities, highly specialized machinery, precision control at nanometer scales.”

Making components requires advanced materials science capabilities, highly specialized machinery, precision control.
—Sanjiv Narayan

For instance, making advanced batteries needs understanding of complex battery chemistry, rare materials and very precise manufacturing. “Right now, India is building the research, deep tech ecosystem and infrastructure needed for this level of manufacturing. As these areas grow, we have a strong opportunity to reduce our reliance on other countries,” says Varun Gupta, co-founder of Boult. The company designs, develops and manufactures wireless earbuds, headphones, smartwatches and speakers, among other electronic gear.

Each component is a mini-system in itself. Take for instance, the multilayer ceramic chip capacitor (MLCC) energy storage device. Its size varies widely for different applications, ranging from ultra-miniature (0.25 x 0.125 mm) to large (5.7 x 5.0 mm). The ultra-miniature MLCC, which is used in space constrained applications such as smartphones, hearables, wearables, etc., is manufactured by stacking alternating layers of ceramic dielectric material (insulator) and metallic electrodes, then sintering and applying external terminations. This process involves creating 50-100 thin ceramic sheets, printing electrode patterns on them, stacking the sheets, and then firing the stack at high temperatures to create a solid, monolithic structure that ranges in size from a few grains of rice to about a fingernail.

Again, companies making camera modules for smartphones will need local supplies of image sensors, lens, infrared filters, digital signal processors (to convert images into digital format, etc.) The global market for camera modules was $43.3 billion in 2023 and is expected to be $68.5 billion in 2028, according to Markets and Markets. South Korea’s LGInnotek, and China’s OFILM and Sunny Optical Technology are among the large global manufacturers of camera modules.

The skills needed for assembly-line operations and manufacturing components are also different. A diploma holder or electronics/mechanical engineer will be ready for assembly operations after about 30 days of training. For component manufacturing, the same talent will have to be trained for up to six months to become familiar with additional manufacturing lines, industrial gases, contamination control, temperature, pressure and working in dust free, ultra-clean environments, among myriad things.

Smartphone-centric assembly

EMS in India has largely been mobile phone-centric,” says CII’s Sharma. “It’s like a 4×400 relay race—we’ve run the first lap, but the remaining three are even more critical.”

The first leg of India’s relay was defined by contract manufacturing of smartphones. Companies such as Foxconn, Wistron, Dixon, and others became the backend for Apple, Xiaomi, OnePlus, RealMe and other brands, while Samsung also scaled up, setting up a large smartphone factory in Noida.

PLI-led manufacturing—where the government gives sops between 4-6% on incremental sales—not only made the country self-reliant (largely in smartphones) but also helped scale up local makers such as Dixon Technologies, Optiemus Infracom, Syrma SGS Technology. It also attracted global companies, including iPhone makers Foxconn and Pegatron, and electronic components makers Jabil Circuit and others.

But assembly is not manufacturing, and setting up a component ecosystem will help address that lacuna. “Our value addition in electronics is only 10–15%,” says Saurabh Agarwal, tax partner and manufacturing practice lead at EY India. “It shows that because of PLI, India is among the largest assemblers of phones in the world. But a lot needs to be done to increase local value addition. A lot of critical components are being imported.”

Also, unlike in smartphones, in the non-mobile categories, which include televisions, air conditioners (ACs), washing machines, IT hardware, and industrial electronics, the volumes are way less compared to what China does and hence makers can’t derive economies of scale.

In smartphones, India has a better record with around 300 million units being made (read: assembled) and Apple also ramping up production here.

However, India still heavily relies on imports for products such as laptops, desktops, other IT hardware and key parts of TVs and washing machines. “IT hardware players didn’t have to make in India to sell in India as import duties were nil to low. Laptop and desktop companies weren’t in the same predicament as phone makers like Apple or Samsung,” says CII’s Sharma.

Made in India?

CII’s Sharma sees design as the third lap of India’s EMS relay—and the most ignored. “You can’t build a brand without design. And unless Indian companies invest in original product and component design, we’ll never have a Samsung or a Panasonic,” he says.

This view is echoed by Gupta of Boult. The company reported revenue of ₹3 crore in 2017, its first year, and in 2024-25, clocked ₹750 crore. For manufacturing, it relies on imports of key parts such as chips, drivers, and LED screens.

“We’ve set up our own SMT (surface mount technology, which embeds chips on a printed circuit board) lines and source plastics and packaging domestically,” says Gupta. “But core manufacturing still depends on global suppliers,” he adds.

The final lap, CII’s Sharma believes, is about building brands. And here, India has stumbled repeatedly. One of the reasons often cited by the industry is lack of volumes. Local brands cannot compete with cheaper imports and are forced out. Though, this is changing in some areas, like ACs. India now makes 22-25 million ACs a year, up from 9-10 million a decade back. China is still the global AC hub with 90 million units, India now has the volumes, which justifies making PCBs for AC inverter controllers, which are currently imported from China.

One way to create economies of scale is to collaborate rather than compete. For example, Ashok Gupta, chairman of Optiemus Infracom, argues that India lacks a ‘we’ culture. “Instead of collaborating, Indian brands tried to go solo. Without economies of scale, they couldn’t survive. The government gave us the PLI cherry. But industry players didn’t work together to build the cake,” says Gupta.

Optiemus has four factories in Noida and makes drones, wearables, hearables, and telecom gear, among other products. It now manufactures for brands such as Realme, Noise, and Boat.

EY India’s Agarwal points out that companies can scale up from assembly to brands once they have the know-how. For instance, when Intel set up its factory in Taiwan back in the 1980s, local company TSMC benefited and today it is the largest contract manufacturer of chips in the world.

New opportunities

India’s next challenge lies in building a broader industrial base.

Companies such as Syrma SGS, Boult and Optiemus are positioning themselves to tap new opportunities in telecom, automotive, and medical devices. Even Lenovo, a Chinese company, has expanded its Puducherry facility to accommodate server manufacturing—an indication that India’s next manufacturing chapter is beginning to take shape.

But experts warn against over-reliance on incentive schemes. “Your business model must be viable on its own,” Optiemus’ Gupta says.

“We have passed the first baton,” CII’s Sharma says, referring to his relay analogy. “If we fumble the next stages—building components, design, and brands—we’ll never win the race.”