It is India’s penchant for electronic items, after oil, that is responsible for draining its foreign exchange reserves the most. Naturally, the government has been trying to decrease India’s dependence on imported electronic items and in turn boost domestic manufacturing so that the trade deficit can be narrowed. And, the good news is that for the first time, the domestic production of electronics in India has surpassed the imports.
Some government officials stated that the domestic production of electronic goods 2016-17 was $49.5 billion, compared to the imports that stood at around $43 billion. It is also interesting to note that this positive growth is not something that happened overnight. The valuation of domestically produced electronic items raised from $30 billion in 2014-15 to $37.5 billion in 2015-16.
After a host of criticism, Make in India finally seems to be reaping the dividends that the Centre had hoped for. But along with such initiatives, this current trend is also a result of some solid policymaking. The government recently increased the Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on several electronic items. Apart from that, it forced Chinese smartphone manufacturers Oppo, and Vivo to not only make their products in India but to source components locally.
News outlet TOI reported Minister of Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad as saying, “The policy initiatives of the Modi government have resulted in accelerating local manufacturing in electronics. We are confident that this momentum will be sustained in the coming years.”
