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Updated – September 02, 2026 12:53 am IST – NEW DELHI
Informal set-ups have frustrated policymakers, as they focus on repairing products by harvesting components from used goods and operate outside any formal framework, that can eventually lead to recycling being a viable source of key raw materials for manufacturing firms to consider.
| Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam
Even as the Union government nudges local electronics manufacturing — such as the push for semiconductor fabrication projects and the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme — gaps have emerged in a critical sector that may grow more important in the coming years: e-waste recycling. Millions of tonne of consumer electronics and appliances have been disposed of in the recent years, and policymakers see extracting expensive and scarce metals and elements as key as electronics consumption is set to boom in the coming years.
While hundreds of millions of mobile phones are in use in India, with TRAI pegging the number of mobile broadband connections in excess of 93.9 crore as per the latest count, India constitutes a relatively small portion, about 4%, of overall global electronics consumption.
As global supply chains for these electronics remain fragile, the government has nevertheless pushed to expand indigenous manufacturing capacity, as well as efforts on the raw materials side, with a ₹1,500 mineral recycling scheme announced in early September.
