The commission will work towards removing roadblocks in manufacturing of electronics and hand holding the companies to steer growth of the sector. Electronics import is 32% of India’s total imports from China which stood at $65.26 billion in 2019-20.
Top government sources told ET on the condition of anonymity that the government is looking to set up an independent commission on electronics. “The commission will be empowered to see growth of electronics manufacturing in India from foundry onwards stage,” one of the officials said.
“The proposed commission would be used to give a fillip to government’s proposed incentives to the sector to set up large scale manufacturing units in India to serve the domestic demand besides ensuring India becomes an export hub for electronics,” the official added.
The Commission will act as a one-stop shop that will facilitate industry players on all matters related to electronic design and manufacturing and will play a key role in addressing all hurdles the industry may face including lack of adequate infrastructure, high cost of finance, inadequate availability of quality power, limited design capabilities and inadequate skill sets.
It is estimated that the domestic electronics hardware manufacturing sector lacks a level playing field vis-à-vis competing nations and suffers a disability of around 8.5% to 11% in pricing because of multiple issues.
The government recently announced a ₹40,000 crore production-linked incentive scheme for electronics and is hopeful of it attracting big-ticket investments.