Electronics Exports In India Reached New Peak In March At Rs 9,812 Crore

Mobile phones contributed to around 34 percent of the overall electronic exports, recording the highest exports

Electronics exports in India have been rising steadily in the past couple of months and reached a new peak in March, having touched Rs 9,812 crore, right before the second Covid wave struck. 

As per the data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, mobile phones contributed to around 34 percent of the overall electronic exports, recording the highest exports (worth Rs 3,421 crore) in the category. It is worth noting that mobile phones have held the top position for quite some time now. 

However, with the onset and rise of covid cases, exports of electronics goods for the 20-21 fiscal year witnessed a slump of 1.17 percent, coming down to Rs 78,606 crore from last fiscal’s Rs 79,536 crore. 

Mobile phone exports stood at Rs 22,868 crore for the whole year, decreasing by 16 percent. Imports of the same, however, rose to Rs 16,643 crore with the shutdown of manufacturing facilities and high imports of completely built units from China to cater to high local demand.

Total electronics imports upped by 5.26 percent, standing at Rs 3.7 lakh crore.

Laptops and personal computers continued to be the largest imported product category, witnessing a 50 percent rise in imports to Rs 35,133 by value during the previous fiscal. On the other hand, exports stood at only Rs 176 crore, which can be attributed to the absence of a local manufacturing ecosystem, experts say. 

Despite imports going past exports by huge numbers, the dynamics can be expected to change steadily. The government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes have export target set of Rs 6.3 lakh crore for mobile phones and Rs 1.61 lakh crore for IT hardware that it expects to meet by the end of five years. Now, it is time to see if, and how fast, these targets can be achieved. 

The National Policy on Electronics 2019 envisages total production of electronics in India to the tune of $400 billion by 2025. Close to $190 billion, or 48 percent of this is expected to come from mobile phones as per official figures.

Further, the industry is estimating that 13% of this target production can be achieved from laptops, tablets or PCs and another 22% from industrial electronics.