Hareesh Ramana, Chief Experience Officer, Sasken Group & President, Borqs Technologies (a Sasken Group company)
India is making significant strides in electronics manufacturing with the aim of 38% value addition within five years. The device manufacturing ecosystem has grown to a significant scale, but it still depends heavily on designs and reference architectures developed elsewhere.
Building domestic capability in electronic device design, especially IoT/connected device design, is critical to India’s ambition of becoming a major electronics manufacturing hub. India’s ambition to reach 38% value addition in electronics manufacturing will be driven not only by scaling assembly but by strengthening device design and systems engineering, which can contribute as much as 30-35% of the total value creation.
Need for in-house design capabilities:
A growing model in India’s connected-device ecosystem is design-led, end-to-end IoT product development anchored locally, covering silicon integration, embedded software, connectivity stacks, and certification. Companies like Borqs Technologies (now part of the Sasken Group) exemplify this approach, offering full-stack IoT design capabilities from within India. For OEMs, this can shorten development cycles, improve control over system integration, and reduce dependence on externally sourced IP and engineering capacity, especially in critical connectivity and compliance stages. Expanding these capabilities across the industry can help India move beyond contract manufacturing and toward the higher-value innovation layer where devices connect to data, analytics, and services.
Time to market gap:
Many IoT projects stall because hardware, firmware, cloud platforms, connectivity, and certification are handled by separate vendors with misaligned priorities.
Over the past decade, India’s product development ecosystem has matured to address these challenges, evolving from a cost-centric outsourcing base into a design-led innovation hub. Global OEMs and platform companies increasingly view India as a partner for rapid prototyping and co-innovation, not just low-cost assembly. Several end-to-end product engineering companies in India exemplify this shift by delivering integrated IoT solutions that shorten development cycles and align with global OEM roadmaps.
Integration as a strategic capability
Connected devices are no longer standalone products; they are endpoints of digital services. The differentiator is therefore systems integration across silicon, hardware, software, connectivity, and lifecycle management. A unified, end-to-end engineering model can enable:
- Faster debugging by tightening the feedback loop between hardware and software teams
- Fewer integration issues by reducing handoffs across multiple vendors
- Quicker prototyping and validation through coordinated design and test cycles
- More predictable certification and production ramp by planning compliance and manufacturability early
- A single accountable partner from concept through delivery and lifecycle management
This is particularly vital for industrial-grade devices where reliability, security, and compliance define adoption. Indian engineering firms with cross-layer capabilities are increasingly enabling platform-driven approaches that allow module reuse across verticals like automotive, energy management, and logistics.
AI and advanced technologies and product development:
Advanced technologies like AI, IoT, automation, digital twins, and cloud computing are transforming product development. AI-driven analytics reduce manual testing cycles, while digital twins simulate device behaviour under real-world conditions, enabling faster iteration and higher reliability.
Demand for software-defined vehicles, smart energy infrastructure, automated factories, and connected appliances is accelerating globally. Multinationals are expanding design centres and co-innovation programs in India to build products for both developed and emerging markets.
For India, the opportunity lies in moving beyond contract manufacturing to the high-value layer where devices meet data, analytics, and services. Mastery over sensors, edge intelligence, connectivity stacks, and lifecycle platforms can enable the country to capture a far greater share of the global electronics economy.
The coming decade will reward ecosystems that can bridge the design-to-deployment gap with reliability and speed. India has the talent, digital infrastructure, and entrepreneurial energy to lead this shift. The next step is an integrated approach that unites design, engineering, and manufacturing into a single innovation continuum.
