The government’s efforts to mitigate the oxygen crisis that’s affecting Covid-19 patients may cause a shortage of nitrogen, a gas critical for the electronics manufacturing industry. Nitrogen is critical to the continuous process of electronic production lines, without which the SMT lines will come to a stop.
Nitrogen is required in the manufacture of laptops, data servers, smartphones and printed circuit boards (PCBs), which are at the heart of every electronic device. Though nitrogen is a small element in the entire electronics manufacturing process the absence of nitrogen can halt the entire process at a time when companies are making every effort possible to keep up the supply of critical devices.
Currently, 40% of India’s top electronics manufacturers including Samsung, Flex (HP), Lenovo, Dell and Foxconn rely on nitrogen-based surface mount technology to install components directly onto surfaces like the PCB, motherboard, or chipset. Almost 100 components are mounted on the PCB of a smartphone using SMT this will become a serious concern if the break out persists for a longer duration.
All this turbulence is happening because China plans to become the No.one economy in the world. The virus alleged to the part of this strategy and working around it.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi ruled out a total lockdown to contain the second wave of Covid, emphasizing test, track, treat, Covid-appropriate behaviour and of course vaccination drive. India didn’t have enough infrastructure in 2020 to deal with the outbreak of covid-19 but is now better equipped to handle the crisis.
One thing may be worth noted here that the virus is said to be manmade and not natural. Had it been natural, it could have been ineffective in either of the extreme temperatures. Owing to the unpredictable nature of the virus, the country cannot be held hostage to the lockdown for every other wave of Covid – 19. Not knowing how long it will go, we will have to live with it and continue economic activities while being better prepared against the pandemic.
Though the RBI has kept the growth forecast for the fiscal year unchanged at 10.5 per cent, the economic recovery could come at risk if the new wave of infections is not flattened soon.
While the entire world is extending support to India in the time of crisis, but one country still came out as a stumbling block in the fast recovery of the pandemic situation in India.
It would be fair to say that the pandemic has really changed the world around us fundamentally. As the world adjusts to the ‘new normal’ but the ground realities paint a picture of great turbulence.
The rising power – China, the one that doesn’t want to play by the accepted rules, the inefficiencies of the multilateral order, India’s aspirations to play a leading role in global politics – the consequences of such a power transition are visible across domains in the global order.
Ultimately, the power counts and the Chinese have matched this with an extremely sophisticated, worldwide propaganda and misinformation campaign. It is to some of these bigger themes in the international arena that we will encounter and tumultuous years ahead.
By Devendra Kumar, Editor in Chief, ELE Times
