India has approved electronics manufacturing projects worth 418.63 billion rupees ($4.64 billion) under a government-backed incentive programme.
The move, which underscores New Delhi’s intensifying push to deepen domestic supply chains and reduce reliance on imported components, marks another decisive step in its attempt to move from being largely an assembly base to becoming a meaningful producer of high-value electronic components.
The projects, cleared under the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme, bring together a familiar mix of global and domestic players. Samsung Electronics, Tata Electronics and Foxconn are among the companies set to receive subsidies from a scheme with a total outlay of 229.19 billion rupees. The focus is not on finished gadgets, but on the less visible building blocks of the electronics industry: mobile phone enclosures, camera sub-assemblies, and other components that account for a large share of device value and are still heavily imported.
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That distinction matters. Over the past decade, India has succeeded in attracting smartphone assembly lines, turning the country into one of the world’s largest handset producers by volume. Yet much of the value in those devices has continued to flow overseas, with key parts sourced from China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. Policymakers have increasingly acknowledged that without a strong domestic component ecosystem, India’s electronics ambitions would remain shallow.
The IT ministry said the newly approved projects are spread across eight states, a signal that the government wants electronics manufacturing to become a broad-based industrial driver rather than one concentrated in a few coastal or southern hubs. Once fully operational, the facilities are expected to generate component output worth about 2.58 trillion rupees ($28.62 billion) and create around 34,000 jobs, adding to the sector’s role as a source of manufacturing employment.
The timing of the approvals also reflects shifting global dynamics. Multinational electronics firms have been accelerating efforts to diversify supply chains away from China, driven by trade tensions with the United States, export controls on advanced technologies, and lessons from pandemic-era disruptions. India has positioned itself as a key beneficiary of this “China+1” strategy, offering incentives, a large domestic market, and geopolitical alignment with Western economies.
Samsung and Foxconn are already deeply embedded in India’s electronics landscape through smartphone assembly and exports, while Tata Electronics represents New Delhi’s push to build national champions capable of competing across the value chain. Tata Group has steadily expanded its electronics footprint, including ambitions in semiconductor manufacturing and advanced components, areas seen as critical to long-term technological sovereignty.
The scale of India’s ambition is underscored by official targets. Electronics manufacturing output reached about $125 billion in the fiscal year ended March 2025. The government aims to quadruple that figure to $500 billion by fiscal 2031. Achieving that would require sustained investment not only in factories, but also in logistics, skilled labor, power supply, and regulatory stability, areas where investors have historically raised concerns.
There are also fiscal and execution risks. Incentive-driven manufacturing programmes require careful monitoring to ensure subsidies translate into real capacity, exports, and technological upgrading, rather than short-term gains. India’s earlier production-linked incentive schemes delivered headline-grabbing investment announcements, but analysts say the next phase will be judged on how deeply they embed local suppliers and reduce import dependence over time.
Still, the approval of component-focused projects suggests a more mature phase of India’s electronics strategy. By targeting the parts that sit beneath finished devices, New Delhi is signaling that its manufacturing push is no longer just about scale, but about capturing value.