India’s electronics story is often framed through incentives, factory announcements or ambitions around semiconductor fabrication. Yet the more consequential shift underway is quieter and more structural.
India is entering a “Second Wave” of electronics and hardware manufacturing, defined less by headline projects and more by sustained domestic demand, deeper engineering capability, and the gradual firming up of a complete ecosystem.
For Asian suppliers, investors and policymakers, this shift matters for a simple reason: electronics supply chains tend to organize around demand gravity. Where demand is large, predictable and increasingly design-led, manufacturing, component localization and supplier investment follow. India is beginning to exhibit these characteristics at scale.
What distinguishes India’s current phase is not merely rising electronics consumption, but the composition of that demand. Multiple infrastructure-linked and industrial segments are scaling in parallel, each characterized by long product lifecycles, reliability requirements and sustained engineering involvement.
Together, these segments are creating stable, design-led demand rather than short consumer upgrade cycles. Power distribution offers a clear example. India is in the midst of one of the world’s largest grid modernization efforts, driven by a national smart metering program that could see hundreds of millions of prepaid meters deployed over the coming years.
Such programs create long-cycle, design-led demand for microcontrollers, communication modules, metrology ICs, power supplies, relays, connectors and high-reliability passive components. They also strengthen the domestic ecosystem, enabling companies such as Genus Power and Secure Meters to scale full system-level capabilities.
Similar dynamics are visible across mobility, energy, appliances and telecom infrastructure. Network expansion and modernization are increasing demand for radios, power systems, timing and network electronics, with domestic players such as Tejas Networks and large operators like Reliance Jio contributing to sustained, design-led demand alongside global suppliers.
Asia’s electronics history offers a consistent lesson. Manufacturing ecosystems consolidate around sustained demand and engineering density, not policy announcements alone. India’s Second Wave reflects this logic.
Domestic and multinational OEMs have moved beyond basic assembly toward localization of control boards, firmware, power modules and testing. Engineering teams in India increasingly influence component selection and system architecture, even when core silicon remains globally sourced.
As a result, competition is shifting from procurement-led buying toward design-in engagement, reliability and lifecycle support.
Digital India realized
India’s electronics transition did not emerge overnight. It is the cumulative outcome of policy continuity spanning more than a decade, where successive initiatives expanded domestic demand while steadily reducing friction for local manufacturing.
The shift began with Make in India, which reframed electronics from a trade concern into a strategic manufacturing priority. This was reinforced by Digital India, which expanded digital public infrastructure and created large-scale demand for devices, connectivity, data centers, and embedded electronics. Together, these initiatives helped stabilize electronics demand across multiple industry cycles.
An early illustration was the nationwide LED lighting program led by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL). By aggregating demand through large, standardized tenders, the program accelerated domestic manufacturing, improved quality and lowered costs, demonstrating how policy-led demand creation could catalyze an electronics value chain.
More recent schemes, including PLI and DLI, alongside large public-sector programs in railways and renewable energy, have built on this base by translating policy intent into sustained electronics deployment across sectors.
The outcomes of this shift are increasingly visible. India’s electronics production has expanded several-fold over the past decade, with annual output estimated at well over $120 billion, compared with low double-digit billions in the mid-2010s.
Electronics exports have also grown to tens of billions of dollars annually, signaling deeper integration into global manufacturing flows rather than simple import substitution.
Smartphones have played a catalytic role, not for their own sake, but for what scale forces into the ecosystem. Tooling upgrades, testing infrastructure, quality systems and workforce training developed for high-volume electronics are now spilling into industrial, automotive, energy and strategic segments.
One of the clearest signals that India’s electronics Second Wave is moving beyond intent is the visible firming up of its supporting ecosystem.
Electronics manufacturing services providers have expanded well beyond basic assembly. Indian EMS players are adding capabilities in system integration, box build, testing and reliability qualification, while global EMS firms have scaled India operations to support automotive, industrial, and strategic electronics.
Printed circuit board capacity is also receiving renewed attention. Investments in multi-layer PCBs, including automotive- and industrial-grade boards, reflect the reality that electronics ecosystems cannot deepen without local PCB availability.
Players such as Syrma SGS and Kaynes Technology have begun strengthening PCB and system-level capabilities alongside broader manufacturing operations, pointing toward incremental localization tied to demand visibility.
Supporting layers, including test and certification, tooling, enclosures, cable harnesses and magnetics, are emerging in parallel, a strong indicator that ecosystem depth is taking hold.
Domestic ecosystem
A defining feature of the Second Wave is the role of domestic companies as ecosystem anchors rather than passive buyers.
On the manufacturing and ODM, EMS side, firms such as Dixon Technologies, Kaynes Technology, VVDN, and Syrma SGS have expanded capabilities across industrial, automotive and strategic electronics. In appliances and HVAC, companies including Voltas, Blue Star and Havells anchor steady demand for power electronics and motor control.
In mobility, policy-led electrification initiatives are steadily increasing electronics content per vehicle. Alongside automotive established players such as Tata Motors, Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp, TVS and EV-focused companies like Ola Electric and Ather Energy have emerged as meaningful demand drivers for power electronics, battery management systems, and vehicle software.
India’s electronics Second Wave is not complete. Infrastructure gaps, skills mismatches and execution risks remain. Yet the trajectory is increasingly clear. India is transitioning from being primarily a market for finished electronics to becoming a market that shapes electronics ecosystems.
For Asia, this represents not fragmentation but diversification with scale. As India’s demand base matures, supply chains are likely to orient around more than one major anchor within the region. Those who recognize this shift early, and invest accordingly, will be better positioned as Asia’s electronics map continues to evolve.
RD Pai is founder and managing director at Focalpoint Consultants Pte Ltd