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IESA wants level playing field for Indian electronics manufacturers

India Electronics and Semiconductor Association, a premier trade body representing the ESDM sector, aims to meet 50 percent of demand for electronic products by domestic manufacturers by 2018.It, however, feels bottlenecks with regard to high rates of taxation on import of raw materials, high cost of financing, unavailability of infrastructures etc. remain a challenge for the Indian electronics system design and manufacturing (ESDM) industry.“The Indian electronics manufacturers face 20 per cent more disadvantages compared to their Chinese and Korean peers, and addressing these disabilities remains a challenge", Sanjeev Keskar, Chairman, IESA .

“There is need for providing level playing field for the local manufacturers", he added. At present, 65 percent of the current demand for electronics products is met by imports and the balance 35 per cent, which mainly pertain to low-end products, are manufactured locally. The imports are likely to grow from $28 billion in 2011 to $42 billion in 2015 as the size of Indian ESDM industry, which is growing at a rate of 9.9 per cent CAGR, is anticipated to be $94.2 billion by 2015.

Electronics imports, which are currently the third highest, next only to crude and gold, accounted for nearly $ 30 billion in 2012, and are expected to cross $ 50 billion in next 3 years, read an IESA - Frost & Sullivan report prepared on Indian ESDM Market-Opportunity and Growth Plan.The total market size of electronics products was estimated to be $ 44.81 billion in 2012, a growth of seven percent over the previous year and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.5 percent and reach $ 64.85 billion by 2015. “Whether there is policy interventions or not, the Indian consumption of electronic products will grow by leaps and bounds. Leveraging our local buying the challenge remains is how to develop the local ecosystem", said the Chairman.

The industry body identified top 20 products accounting for 80 percent of the overall electronics demand in the country besides five more high growth products. The products include mobile phones, digital camera, LCD monitors, set top box, notebooks, memory cards and USB drives, base stations, routers or switches, digital instrument clusters, desktops etc. The focus in the annual Vision Summit 2014 scheduled to be held in February at Bangalore will be building the manufacturing ecosystem in the country, Keskar said.

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