Make in India: electronics industry voices doubts

Though the Modi Government's Make-In-India push could possibly reduce electronic imports, the industry has reservations about the initiative.

At the recently concluded India Electronic and Semiconductor Association (IESA) summit, the industry asserted that the country needs to cut down on its electronic imports. “We want to bring electronic imports down from 65 to 50 per cent by the end of next year and 0 per cent by 2020,” Ashok Chandok, Chairman of IESA who also heads global sales and marketing for NXP Semiconductor, a multinational company.

While that is a good thing, the timelines and whether it makes sense to make basic chipsets as the way forward is being questioned, considering that there is very less government backing, access to raw materials or good talent. “It is aspirational but realistically speaking a tough task,” says Jaswinder Ahuja, Corporate VP and MD, Cadence India. For starters, Ahuja believes that in this age of globalisation, no company will want to set up their whole manufacturing plant in a single location. This is due to the changes that modern day manufacturing is undergoing. “New manufacturing involves the complete ecosystem that goes into making of a product and not just making parts,” believes Professor Rajat Moona, Director General of C-DAC.

In other words, it means that the complete ecosystem has to be in place for a company to set up its manufacturing base in the country. For example, to make a smartphone, right from LCD screens, steady supply of workforce to the chips that go in should be located in a single place for companies to make investments.

At present despite claims made by state governments and universities, India lacks in all these areas as government struggles to provide basic infrastructure such as power, water and the education system struggles with supplying quality manpower. “Our engineering education system is flawed. The students do not have the aptitude and a lot of them are not willing to learn,” said Ahuja.

To be fair, till now the software industry has been taking away a lot of engineers in areas like mechanical and civil – disciplines which are key in manufacturing. “The mindset needs to change and there should be an emphasis on tech transfer,” says Shubha V, Chief Scientist, Materials Sciences, CSIR-NAL. Also, there are not many startups who tend to be the backbone in manufacturing.