The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) should come up with a phased manufacturing plan to encourage manufacturing of electronic components other than mobile phones, suggested a recent ASSOCHAM-NECTI joint study.

"As domestic value addition has increased for mobile phones, similar plans are needed to encourage manufacturing of components which are the core ingredients in the overall increase of domestic value addition," noted the study titled ‘Electricals & electronics manufacturing in India,' jointly conducted by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) and NEC Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.

Noting that India lags in component manufacturing, which is the most fundamental block in electronic devices, the report stated that country should focus on reducing component imports and increasing local value addition to become a manufacturing hub.

Though the union government is driving reform in IT and electronics manufacturing sector through initiatives like ‘Make in India' and creating favourable policies to enable an investor-friendly environment, component ecosystem has not taken foothold due to unfavourable scale factor in establishing commercial viability.

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