India's Moment Is Different This Time. Here's Why.

Key Summary

• India’s electronics manufacturing momentum is real, with output near US$142B and a target of US$300B+ by 2030.
• India is moving beyond assembly, investing in components, standards, certifications and deeper supply chain capability.
• Global electronics companies should look seriously at India now for sourcing, investment, market growth and supply chain resilience.

By Gaurab Majumdar, Global Electronics Association, and Philip Stoten, Scoop Communications

For more than two decades, the electronics industry has talked about India as the next great manufacturing destination. The narrative has been familiar: a vast population, a deep pool of engineering talent, a democratic counterweight to China. And for much of that time, the reality lagged behind the rhetoric.

From Promise to Proof

Something has changed. When we sat down recently to record an episode of the EMS India Podcast, the conversation kept returning to a single theme — this time, the momentum is real, and the evidence is more than tangible.

Consider the numbers. India's electronics manufacturing output now stands at approximately US$142B, with the government targeting more than 300B by 2030. The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, widely credited with accelerating the industry's growth, has now been joined by something arguably more consequential: a component electronics manufacturing scheme designed to build the deeper supply chain that India has historically lacked. Where earlier policy focused on assembly, the government is now looking at the full picture.

That shift matters, because the gap between assembly and a mature manufacturing ecosystem is where India's real challenge has always lived. Assembling a finished product is one thing. Building the components, the boards, the raw material supply chain, and the quality systems that underpin world-class manufacturing is another entirely.

The progress on quality is one of the most striking and least reported dimensions of the India story. In 2018, India ranked around 22nd in the world for the number of IPC certifications issued per year. By 2025, it had climbed to seventh. Last year alone, roughly 4,000 Indian professionals completed certification. This is not a cosmetic change. It reflects a growing recognition among Indian manufacturers that competing for global OEM business — in defence, aerospace, medical, and automotive — demands adherence to international standards as a baseline, not an aspiration.

Building the Supply Chain Beneath Assembly

The geography of India's manufacturing tells its own story. This is not a single hub but a network of specialised clusters: defence and aerospace anchored in Bangalore, automotive electronics in Chennai and Pune, consumer electronics concentrated around Gurgaon and Noida in the north, an emerging semiconductor corridor in Gujarat, and a new OSAT facility taking shape in Assam. Each cluster brings its own supply chain, its own talent pool, and its own momentum.

Talent, of course, is India's most cited advantage. The country produces more than 1.5 million engineering graduates every year, a figure that exceeds the entire population of some manufacturing nations. But volume alone does not build an industry. The persistent challenge is channeling that talent toward hardware and manufacturing rather than software, and ensuring graduates arrive on the shop floor with relevant, hands-on skills. Bridging the gap between the classroom and the factory — through workforce training, university partnerships, and practical initiatives that connect students to the reality of building products destined for aircraft and satellites — is where much of the important work is now happening.

None of this is to suggest the path ahead is without obstacles. India remains dependent on imported raw materials, particularly PCBs and components, in volumes that create genuine vulnerability. The country's federal structure, with state governments pursuing their own investment and infrastructure policies alongside national schemes, can create complexity for global companies evaluating where to invest. And the deeper supply chain the component scheme envisions will take years, not months, to materialise.

Why Global Electronics Companies Should Look Now

But the direction of travel is unmistakable. India's first domestically designed chips have gone to space. Global primes including Boeing are establishing Indian bases. Indian design houses are serving customers across Europe and the United States. And critically, the relationship between industry and government is maturing, with growing collaboration on standards, advocacy, and the kind of long-term, stable industrial policy that transformed other manufacturing economies before it.

For the global electronics community, the message is simple. The India of today is not the India of 2000. The perception is catching up to a reality that has already shifted. Whether you are looking to source from India, sell into its vast and growing domestic market, or build resilience into a supply chain that geopolitical disruption has exposed as fragile, the moment to look seriously at India is now.

The best way to understand what is happening is to see it for yourself. Come and visit. The industry, and the people building it, will welcome you.

Gaurab Majumdar is vice president for India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa at the Global Electronics Association.

Philip Stoten is a journalist, speaker and host specialising in the global electronics manufacturing services industry. He hosts the EMS India Pod, MADE IN EUROPE and EMS@C-Level podcasts.