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India must build a strong innovation ecosystem alongside its expanding manufacturing base to become a net exporter of electronics, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said, stressing that the country's next phase of growth will depend on creating new products rather than only producing them.
Addressing the Chintan Shivir 2026 on Electronics Export Vision, Agrawal said innovation would play a critical role in helping India's electronics sector move up the global value chain. "We will have to create a full innovative ecosystem also parallelly along with the production ecosystem, so that at some point in time we are not only producer of products, we are creator of new products and that will be our time to actually catapult this journey from being a net importer to a net exporter," he said. The remarks come as India continues to expand its electronics manufacturing capacity under the Atma Nirbhar Bharat and Make in India initiatives, with the government increasingly focusing on strengthening the entire value chain, including semiconductors, electronics components and product design. According to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, electronics manufacturing has grown nearly six-fold over the last 11 years, rising from Rs 1.9 lakh crore in 2014-15 to Rs 11.32 lakh crore in 2024-25. Electronics exports have also increased eight-fold during the same period to Rs 3.26 lakh crore, making electronics the country's third-largest export category. The ministry said the government has supported the sector through initiatives such as the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for electronics manufacturing, the PLI scheme for IT hardware, the Electronics Components Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) and the Semicon India Programme to deepen domestic manufacturing capabilities. The semiconductor ecosystem is also expanding, with 10 semiconductor units approved involving cumulative investments of Rs 1.6 lakh crore, while the Design Linked Incentive scheme and the Chips to Start-ups programme are supporting domestic chip design and innovation. Agrawal's remarks indicate that alongside manufacturing-led growth, innovation and product development are expected to become the next focus areas as India seeks to strengthen its position in the global electronics industry. (ANI)
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