Govt’s new electronics policy banks heavily on mobile manufacturing

The recently approved National Policy on Electronics, 2019 (NPE 2019) is heavily dependent on the success of the handset manufacturing ecosystem in the country. The NPE 2019, approved by the union cabinet on Tuesday, has set an ambitious target of manufacturing goods and offering services worth Rs 26 trillion by 2025 and half of it is expected to come from a robust mobile handsets sector.

The new policy for the electronics sector that will replace the existing NPE in force since 2012, envisages giving a boost to Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) by promoting domestic manufacturing and exports in the entire value-chain. It aims to promote industry-led R&D and innovation in all sub-sectors of electronics, including grass root level innovations and early-stage start-ups in emerging technology areas such as 5G, Internet of Things (loT), Artificial Intelligence (Al), Machine Learning, Virtual Reality (VR), drones, robotics, additive manufacturing, photonics and nano-based devices.