New Delhi: The Union IT ministry announced its first tranche of approvals for electronics component facilities in India, with 31 projects investing \u20b97,877 crore to manufacture mobile enclosures, copper coils, and rare-earth magnets, and to assemble speakers, microphones, and car displays.<\/p>\n
The approvals are part of a \u20b940,000-crore Electronics Components Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) that the ministry of electronics and IT (Meity) notified in April last year. The scheme is designed to increase the net share of high-margin domestic income generated by Indian companies in India\u2019s domestic electronics industry, which produced goods worth over \u20b913 trillion in FY26, as per Meity.<\/p>\n
Leading the pack on Monday was Wipro Electronic Materials, which said it would invest an additional \u20b91,033 crore to manufacture copper-clad laminates\u2014the core component required to produce printed circuit boards (PCBs). The company had initially received approval from Meity to build a copper-clad laminate manufacturing plant in Bengaluru on 2 January, with an initial investment commitment of \u20b9500 crore. Monday\u2019s approval brought its total investment up to \u20b91,533 crore.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a press event in New Delhi on Monday, S. Krishnan, secretary at Meity, said that Wipro Global Engineering and Electronic Materials Pvt. Ltd\u2019s plant in Bengaluru will be operational \u201cwithin the next two to three months.\u201d To be sure, the approved entity is part of Wipro Enterprises Ltd\u2013the privately-held business of entrepreneur and philanthropist Azim Premji, with his two sons, Rishad and Tariq, on its board. This is different from Wipro Ltd, which runs the IT services business and is led by chairperson Rishad\u2014along with his father.<\/p>\n
Homegrown factory-floor machine manufacturer Jyoti CNC Ltd announced an investment of \u20b91,021 crore to manufacture capital goods locally for electronics factories. Bhagwati Products Ltd\u2014the joint venture between domestic phone brand Micromax Informatics and Chinese electronics manufacturer Huaqin\u2014was approved to invest \u20b91,015 crore in two separate projects\u2014 \u20b9450 crore in assembling mobile phone display modules and \u20b9565 crore in making precision moulding instruments for electronics.<\/p>\n
Other key projects approved to receive government incentives on Monday included Minda Instruments Ltd\u2019s display module assembly plant, with an investment of \u20b9270 crore, and PCBL Ltd's \u20b9329-crore investment for local manufacturing of acetylene black\u2014a key component used in battery manufacturing. PCBL, to be sure, is an entity under RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, which formerly operated as Philips Carbon Black Ltd and entered this space in India after signing a technology transfer agreement with China\u2019s Ningxia Jinhua Chemical Co. in February last year.<\/p>\n
The approvals were the first since 30 March, when Meity had approved \u20b97,104 crore in electronics component investments. Overall, 106 component projects have been approved by Meity since the first approval on 27 October. Total committed investments so far have reached \u20b969,548 crore\u2014as against the Centre\u2019s initial investment expectation of \u20b959,000 crore, said union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.<\/p>\n
The minister, during the previous approval on 30 March, had said that the Centre would place emphasis on companies approved to receive government incentives to achieve global quality standards\u2014failing which, the companies may even lose their incentive allocations. On Monday, however, Vaishnaw took a softer tone, stating that the industry is off to a \u201cgood beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout 38 projects have already started manufacturing under the framework of ECMS, and 16 are under active construction. This is a very big thing to achieve within such a short span of time. A total of 106 projects have now been approved, including today, generating 74,628 direct jobs and nearly 250,000 jobs taking indirect employment into account. Moreover, the working conditions are very good, and in terms of projects, we are now getting into raw materials manufacturing as well (in acetylene black),\u201d the minister said.<\/p>\n
He, however, added that further localization of electronics sub-components is what Meity will seek to approve ECMS projects. \u201cWork must be done across the entire electronics supply chain, and every component of it, by evaluating bills of materials. The industry must pursue workshops to understand localization of minute sub-components, and see how much of the manufacturing can be brought to India.\u201d<\/p>\n
Industry stakeholders, on this note, largely concurred on the road map of localization.<\/p>\n
Aakash Minda, promoter and executive director of Minda Industries Ltd, said that the company aims to locally assemble \u201cup to 1 million units of display modules used in the infotainment systems of cars.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile our total capacity that we\u2019re setting up is 2 million, scaling up will take time. Our goal is to scale up in phases. The first phase, which we have been approved for today, will, of course, include some imported components, but will significantly add to local value addition, as the display module accounts for nearly 50% of a car\u2019s tech components. We plan to generate revenue from local display manufacturing starting next fiscal, and in about three years, enter phase two, which will be to make sub-components as well,\u201d Minda said.<\/p>\n
Shouvik has been tracking the rise and shifts of India\u2019s technology ecosystem for over a decade, across print, broadcast and web-first platforms. He's been a tinkerer of machines and PCs since childhood, a habit he was thrilled to convert into his profession. This has led him to fascinating experiences of technologies around the world, which is what keeps him hooked to his job.<br><br>Shouvik likes to believe that he is one of the few technology journalists in India who can also code. He has also been writing about the rise of AI well before it became a household name, and has met some of the most fascinating people over the years through his work.<br><br>Shouvik writes about AI, Big Tech, data centres, electronics, semiconductors, cybersecurity, gaming, cryptocurrencies, and consumer technologies. He is most fond of the stories he has written during his time here at Mint, for which he also writes 'Transformer', a weekly technology newsletter, and hosts 'Techcetra', a weekly technology podcast.<br><br>Outside of work, Shouvik spends most of his time with Pixel, whom he believes is the world's best dog. He is also an avid reader, a toy collector, a gamer and a frequent traveller.<\/p>\n
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