India's Semiconductor Ambitions
Beyond Chips: The Electronics Components Push
How India is supporting manufacturing of electronic components like circuit boards, displays and batteries, and why components matter for value addition.
A smartphone contains not just chips but many other components: printed circuit boards, displays, cameras, batteries, connectors and passive components.
The value-addition problem
India assembles large numbers of phones, but most components are imported, so domestic value addition has been limited.
The Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme
In 2025, the government launched the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) with an outlay of around 22,919 crore rupees, offering incentives for:
- Passive components like resistors and capacitors.
- Printed circuit boards.
- Camera modules and display modules.
- Lithium-ion cells for electronics.
- Capital equipment for component making.
Companies applied with large investment proposals.
Display fabs
The Semiconductor Mission also supports display fabs for LCD and OLED screens, though large projects have been slower to materialise.
Why components matter
- Higher value addition and more jobs.
- Resilience against supply disruptions.
- Competitiveness: local suppliers reduce costs and delays for assemblers.
Challenges
- Scale and cost competition with China, Vietnam and others.
- Technology and partnerships.
- Raw materials.
A phone assembler in Noida sources circuit boards from a new domestic supplier supported by ECMS instead of importing them. Delivery times shorten, and more of the phone's value is created in India.
Most components have been imported; building component manufacturing raises value addition.
- Phones contain many components beyond chips.
- India's domestic value addition in electronics has been limited.
- The 2025 ECMS (around 22,919 crore) supports component manufacturing.
- Components raise value addition, jobs and resilience.
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