From chip plants to research parks, India must invest in an electronics manufacturing base to address the swelling demand for smartphones, laptops and other gear or risk an import bill larger than what we pay for oil, a top adviser to the Prime Minister, Sam Pitroda, has said.
Information technology and services may have powered India to be one of the world’s fastest growing major economies, but manufacturing accounts for just 16 per cent of output, roughly half the share of China’s manufacturing sector and far behind India’s targeted 25 per cent over the next decade.
“We have lost our entire electronics manufacturing base, whatever little we had. Electronic hardware (imports) could amount to US$ 400 billion if we’re not careful, in the next 10-15 years, which would be more than oil,” Pitroda said. Chip makers such as Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and Freescale Semiconductor Holdings have design operations in India, but of the US$ 6.55 billion worth of semiconductors used in Indian bought products last year, almost none were made locally
