Conditions needed in all PLI schemes to create full electronics manufacturing ecosystem: Ajai Chowdhury
He said currently India is making huge strides in electronics manufacturing for global brands and products, but Indian products and brands in electronics are slowly disappearing.
To create a full electronics manufacturing ecosystem, the government should start putting certain conditions for value addition in India in all the production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes, industry veteran and one of the founders of HCL, Ajai Chowdhry said.
“Unless you design products in India, buy Indian components and create products for India and the world, we are not going to have a depth of manufacturing,” Chowdhry told FE.
He said currently India is making huge strides in electronics manufacturing for global brands and products, but Indian products and brands in electronics are slowly disappearing.
Giving a reference to the various PLI schemes, he said some companies from abroad will come in and get the benefits but five years later, when the scheme is over, the firm may move on to another territory where similar schemes are available, so some protection has to be there.
“For the manufacturing area, we suggest the government also start putting certain conditions for value addition in India in all PLIs so that people from all over the world, who are coming here should create the full electronics ecosystem. If they design in India, they also buy components from Indian companies and in future buy semiconductors from plants here, then we will have a very good long term electronics manufacturing ecosystem,” Chowdhry said.
Recently, he has been appointed as a member of the advisory committee for the country’s semiconductor mission.
The 17-member committee will provide insights and suggestions to develop a sustainable semiconductor and display ecosystem in India.
Chowdhry along with fellow HCL founder Arjun Malhotra and semiconductor industry veteran Satya Gupta has also launched a think tank EPIC foundation to revive the country’s electronics Industry and support Aatmanirbhar Bharat to create $45 billion markets for Indian electronics products.
For building a strong eco-system of partners, EPIC Foundation has signed MoU with the Delhi government for setting up an electronics city in Delhi and working with other states for developing an electronics product design and manufacturing eco-system. The foundation has also signed MoUs with IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras. The major industry associations in the electronics and semiconductor domain, IESA, ELCINA, MAIT, ESSCI, and ELCOMA are supporting EPIC Foundation’s mission.
It has been highlighted that over the last three decades, Indian electronics brands and products have seen a continuous decline and today, there are hardly any Indian brands and products in the high-volume electronics product categories. Today the market share of “Indian” products and brands is less than 10% out of the $180 billion markets for electronics products.