Latest news with #electronicsandinformationtechnology
Economic Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
MeitY jumpstarts talks on data centre policy to boost capacity
The ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) has restarted consultations on the draft national data centre policy, according to officials, as the government looks to sharpen its approach to wooing investments in such facilities in the policy, which aims to encourage setting up of data centres through single-window permissions, streamlining approvals, promoting domestic manufacturing and providing incentives, was announced in 2020 but never implemented. Last week, a limited stakeholder consultation held by the ministry in the national capital was attended by industry representatives, who have been asked to submit recommendations by this week, the officials said. "The existing policy was comprehensive. We have sought feedback on how to update it in line with how the sector has changed over the past five years," said one of the officials cited rapid expansion of the sector and AI-led growth have led to the need for having such facilities across the country, centrally planning for rising power consumption and coordinating with state governments, he said. Many of the features of the draft policy, such as single-window clearances, four dedicated Data Centre Economic Zones (DCEZs), and targeted incentives, have been discussed in recent meetings, said industry executives who participated at the last meeting. It aimed to make India a favorable destination for data centres by streamlining approvals, promoting domestic manufacturing and providing incentives. The government has partially adopted one of its key suggestions—granting infrastructure status to data centres with capacity of 5 MW or higher. "The government is keen on the DCEZs since it would help distribute the uneven spread of data centres, especially taking advantage of the many smaller edge data centres that are set to come up in interior locations," a person aware of the matter told ET. "It has given the example of India's first AI-based data centre park opening in Chhattisgarh's Naya Raipur in May." The DCEZ was envisioned to create an ecosystem of hyperscalers, cloud service providers, IT companies, R&D units and other allied industries at select locations. Tapping into states "Considering that at least 10 states have now brought in data centre policies, the government plans to adopt some of the elements of the various state data centre policies based on industry feedback," said an executive with a Mumbai-based data centre operator. Although Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal have rolled out the red carpet for data centres, nearly 80% of the total capacity is still in the large metros—Mumbai (41%), Chennai (23%) and Delhi NCR (14%), according to real estate services firm Colliers India.
Hindustan Times
6 days ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Officials look to make A.I. summit bigger than G20
Preparations are in full swing as the government gets ready to host the India Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summit next year in New Delhi, with people aware of the matter saying that the government wants it to be 'bigger than the G20 Summit.' The AI Summit will be held from 19 to 20 February, 2026, following similar high-profile meetings in Paris (2025), Seoul (2024) and Bletchley Park (2023).(Representational) The Summit will be held from 19 to 20 February, 2026, following similar high-profile meetings in Paris (2025), Seoul (2024) and Bletchley Park (2023). 'This will be a grand event, built around the model of G20. All global CEOs, along with heads of state have been invited,' said a government official at the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY), which is the ministry leading the preparations of the Summit. 'Lots of moving parts right now. The government is still working around the programme schedule, smaller pre-events, and slowly sending out invitations.' Based on the central theme of 'People, Planet, and Progress,' the Summit's invitation, sent to a select few last month, read, 'The event will bring together world leaders, policymakers, innovators, and experts to discuss AI's role in driving equitable development, improving public services, and tackling global challenges while prioritizing ethics, safety, and inclusivity.' People familiar with the planning told HT that the Prime Minister's Office is closely involved, with clear instructions to make it a landmark global event bigger than the G20. At the G7 Summit held in Kananaskis, Canada in June 2025, PM Narendra Modi invited all G7 leaders to India's AI Summit. Ahead of the summit, MeitY has issued a call for proposals inviting government agencies, academia, intergovernmental organisations, private firms and non-profits from all over the world to host pre-Summit events between August 11, 2025 and 31 January 2026. These pre-events can be in the form of workshops, panels, hackathons, conferences, etc, and must be held in-person or hybrid, but not fully virtual. 'By hosting Pre-Summit Events, organisations can play an active role in shaping the Summit's deliberations and outcomes. Selected events will receive official co-branding and visibility as part of the Summit's global programme,' said MeitY. The pre-events must align with the seven smaller summit themes, namely human capital, inclusion, safe and trusted AI, resilience, science, democratising AI resources, and social good. Selected events will receive official co-branding. In the run up to the preparations, MeitY also held five virtual stakeholder consultations from June 6 to 8, chaired by ministry's additional secretary Abhishek Singh. These consultations included representatives from international organisations, industry, startups, academia, and civil society. The ministry also opened a public consultation forum from June 6 to 30, inviting citizens to share their suggestions on shaping the Summit's agenda. The previous AI Summit was held in Paris in February 2025, where 58 countries, including India, endorsed a joint statement on 'Inclusive and Sustainable Artificial Intelligence for People and the Planet.' The United States and the United Kingdom did not sign the declaration, which emphasised making AI more accessible while ensuring trust and safety in its deployment.
Hindustan Times
27-06-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Ministries brief House panel on AI readiness
Senior officials from the ministries of home affairs, defence, power, and electronics and information technology (MeitY) on Thursday briefed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and IT, outlining their preparedness around the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), people aware of the matter said. The three-hour meeting saw ministries detail how they were adopting AI to improve internal functioning. (Representative file photo) While MeitY has made presentations to the committee in the past on India AI Mission and broader developments in the sector, this was one of the first sessions where the home, defence, and power ministries were specifically asked to explain their AI strategies. These included measures being taken by the government to prevent AI-led harms, the people said. 'The committee has been keen to understand how different arms of the government are approaching AI, how it is being used, what safeguards are in place, and what are the plans for the future,' a person, requesting anonymity, said. The three-hour meeting saw ministries detail how they were adopting AI to improve internal functioning while also flagging growing risks such as cybersecurity threats, deepfakes, and the misuse of social media. Officials also responded to questions from committee members about the role of AI in countering cyber fraud and misinformation, especially as deepfakes become harder to detect and more widely used in scams, the people cited above said. The panel has been holding a series of such reviews over the past few months, having invited representatives from the financial sector to present their AI readiness a couple of months ago. According to one official, the committee routinely seeks written responses from stakeholders and uses these meetings to follow up with more detailed inquiries. Apart from AI, Wednesday's meeting also included the review and adoption of draft reports on the government's response to the committee's earlier recommendations regarding the 2024-25 budget allocations for the departments of posts, telecommunications, information and broadcasting, and the MeitY.
Mint
22-06-2025
- Automotive
- Mint
After assembling 99% of its phones, India faces a harder manufacturing test
New Delhi: Over the past decade, India's electronics manufacturing sector has been defined by one thing: the mobile phone. From 2014 to 2024, the country went from assembling less than 30% of the phones it consumed to 99%, thanks largely to the ₹1.9 trillion Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. According to the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY), the value of India's electronics production rose nearly fivefold to ₹9.5 trillion in 2023-24, from ₹1.9 trillion in 2014-15. Yet, for all the triumph in scale, for India to emerge as a global manufacturing powerhouse, it has to go beyond smartphones and also break free from its role as an assembly shop. To make mobile phones, electronic manufacturing services (EMS—or contract manufacturers) companies depend on imports of key components, including cameras, displays, high-end battery packs, semiconductors, and printed circuit boards (PCBs). Even other electronic products—smart TVs, CCTV cameras, computers, wearables, and hearables—are assembled from imported components. If product assembly is about managing global supply chains and focuses on integration and system level performance, 'manufacturing of components involves deeper scientific and engineering complexity," says Vinod Sharma, chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)'s National Committee on Electronics Manufacturing. PLI boost Components are the DNA of electronics. However, the components that go into electronic goods in India are still largely sourced from China, Korea, and Taiwan. 'Even now, 85–90% of the electronics component value is imported," says a MeitY report. In 2023, only $15 billion of India's $101 billion electronics output came from components, the report noted. 'Without component manufacturing, there is no ecosystem. You can't make a product unless you can source the heart of it locally. Otherwise, you're just screwing parts together," says Sanjiv Narayan, co-founder of Syrma SGS Technology, a three-decade-old electronics manufacturing company. The ₹3,700 crore company, which exports 30% of its production, has 13 factories manufacturing electronics, automotive, telecom, and industrial electronics products, among others. In an effort to incentivize component manufacturers and boost localization, the government launched a ₹22,919-crore Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) in April. The last date for companies to apply for benefits under the scheme is 31 July. ECMS will run for six years, from 2025-26 to 2031-32. It offers incentives for the manufacture of various components, including camera modules, displays, and multi-layer PCBs. As CII's Sharma put it, 'Components of components need to be there. The components policy is trying to address this issue by giving incentives for creation of the local ecosystem." Indeed, in a release announcing the launch, MeitY stated: 'The scheme aims to develop a robust component ecosystem by attracting large investments (global/domestic) in the electronics component manufacturing ecosystem, increasing domestic value addition by developing capacity and capabilities, and integrating Indian companies with global value chains." ECMS envisages attracting investments to the tune of ₹59,350 crore, generating production worth ₹4.5 trillion and creating additional direct employment for 91,600, as well as many indirect jobs. It has already received 70 applications— 80% from small and mid-sized players. According to reports, large companies such as Tata Electronics, Foxconn and Dixon Technologies are among the applicants. Queries sent to MeitY are yet to elicit a response. The scheme could provide the missing piece for expansion beyond smartphones. If implemented effectively, it will help build domestic supply chains for crucial components—an essential step in reducing dependence on imports. While the new PLI scheme has a long list of components, India does not have expertise in all of these. Initially, it will go with electro-mechanical components such as relays, switches, fuses and capacitors, for which manufacturing is already happening locally. These are the low-hanging fruit that Indian manufacturers can go after immediately. There is local expertise in parts such as camera modules and the industry will have to bank on collaborations, or global manufacturers might set up base here to make these. Interestingly, back in the 1980s India had a thriving components hub, with up to 80% of the black & white TVs sold in the country manufactured with locally sourced components. But later, with technology shifts, limited scale and zero import duty on components, the ecosystem for electronic parts died an early death. Engineering complexity For all the ambition, manufacturing components is a complex business, vastly different from assembling electronic products such as smartphones. The latter is akin to putting together 400-500 components, including cameras, sensors, a battery, memory, integrated circuits, and other parts to make a fully functional device. While all of that may seem complicated, assembling a smartphone is like a walk in the park compared to making components. To put that in context, each of the 500 or so components in a smartphone has multiple components within them. 'A manufacturer of components is dealing with far more complexity than someone who is assembling those components," says Narayan. 'It is foundational engineering. Making components requires advanced materials science capabilities, highly specialized machinery, precision control at nanometer scales." For instance, making advanced batteries needs understanding of complex battery chemistry, rare materials and very precise manufacturing. 'Right now, India is building the research, deep tech ecosystem and infrastructure needed for this level of manufacturing. As these areas grow, we have a strong opportunity to reduce our reliance on other countries," says Varun Gupta, co-founder of Boult. The company designs, develops and manufactures wireless earbuds, headphones, smartwatches and speakers, among other electronic gear. Each component is a mini-system in itself. Take for instance, the multilayer ceramic chip capacitor (MLCC) energy storage device. Its size varies widely for different applications, ranging from ultra-miniature (0.25 x 0.125 mm) to large (5.7 x 5.0 mm). The ultra-miniature MLCC, which is used in space constrained applications such as smartphones, hearables, wearables, etc., is manufactured by stacking alternating layers of ceramic dielectric material (insulator) and metallic electrodes, then sintering and applying external terminations. This process involves creating 50-100 thin ceramic sheets, printing electrode patterns on them, stacking the sheets, and then firing the stack at high temperatures to create a solid, monolithic structure that ranges in size from a few grains of rice to about a fingernail. Again, companies making camera modules for smartphones will need local supplies of image sensors, lens, infrared filters, digital signal processors (to convert images into digital format, etc.) The global market for camera modules was $43.3 billion in 2023 and is expected to be $68.5 billion in 2028, according to Markets and Markets. South Korea's LGInnotek, and China's OFILM and Sunny Optical Technology are among the large global manufacturers of camera modules. The skills needed for assembly-line operations and manufacturing components are also different. A diploma holder or electronics/mechanical engineer will be ready for assembly operations after about 30 days of training. For component manufacturing, the same talent will have to be trained for up to six months to become familiar with additional manufacturing lines, industrial gases, contamination control, temperature, pressure and working in dust free, ultra-clean environments, among myriad things. Smartphone-centric assembly EMS in India has largely been mobile phone-centric," says CII's Sharma. 'It's like a 4x400 relay race—we've run the first lap, but the remaining three are even more critical." The first leg of India's relay was defined by contract manufacturing of smartphones. Companies such as Foxconn, Wistron, Dixon, and others became the backend for Apple, Xiaomi, OnePlus, RealMe and other brands, while Samsung also scaled up, setting up a large smartphone factory in Noida. PLI-led manufacturing—where the government gives sops between 4-6% on incremental sales—not only made the country self-reliant (largely in smartphones) but also helped scale up local makers such as Dixon Technologies, Optiemus Infracom, Syrma SGS Technology. It also attracted global companies, including iPhone makers Foxconn and Pegatron, and electronic components makers Jabil Circuit and others. But assembly is not manufacturing, and setting up a component ecosystem will help address that lacuna. 'Our value addition in electronics is only 10–15%," says Saurabh Agarwal, tax partner and manufacturing practice lead at EY India. 'It shows that because of PLI, India is among the largest assemblers of phones in the world. But a lot needs to be done to increase local value addition. A lot of critical components are being imported." Also, unlike in smartphones, in the non-mobile categories, which include televisions, air conditioners (ACs), washing machines, IT hardware, and industrial electronics, the volumes are way less compared to what China does and hence makers can't derive economies of scale. In smartphones, India has a better record with around 300 million units being made (read: assembled) and Apple also ramping up production here. However, India still heavily relies on imports for products such as laptops, desktops, other IT hardware and key parts of TVs and washing machines. 'IT hardware players didn't have to make in India to sell in India as import duties were nil to low. Laptop and desktop companies weren't in the same predicament as phone makers like Apple or Samsung," says CII's Sharma. Made in India? CII's Sharma sees design as the third lap of India's EMS relay—and the most ignored. 'You can't build a brand without design. And unless Indian companies invest in original product and component design, we'll never have a Samsung or a Panasonic," he says. This view is echoed by Gupta of Boult. The company reported revenue of ₹3 crore in 2017, its first year, and in 2024-25, clocked ₹750 crore. For manufacturing, it relies on imports of key parts such as chips, drivers, and LED screens. 'We've set up our own SMT (surface mount technology, which embeds chips on a printed circuit board) lines and source plastics and packaging domestically," says Gupta. 'But core manufacturing still depends on global suppliers," he adds. The final lap, CII's Sharma believes, is about building brands. And here, India has stumbled repeatedly. One of the reasons often cited by the industry is lack of volumes. Local brands cannot compete with cheaper imports and are forced out. Though, this is changing in some areas, like ACs. India now makes 22-25 million ACs a year, up from 9-10 million a decade back. China is still the global AC hub with 90 million units, India now has the volumes, which justifies making PCBs for AC inverter controllers, which are currently imported from China. One way to create economies of scale is to collaborate rather than compete. For example, Ashok Gupta, chairman of Optiemus Infracom, argues that India lacks a 'we' culture. 'Instead of collaborating, Indian brands tried to go solo. Without economies of scale, they couldn't survive. The government gave us the PLI cherry. But industry players didn't work together to build the cake," says Gupta. Optiemus has four factories in Noida and makes drones, wearables, hearables, and telecom gear, among other products. It now manufactures for brands such as Realme, Noise, and Boat. EY India's Agarwal points out that companies can scale up from assembly to brands once they have the know-how. For instance, when Intel set up its factory in Taiwan back in the 1980s, local company TSMC benefited and today it is the largest contract manufacturer of chips in the world. New opportunities India's next challenge lies in building a broader industrial base. Companies such as Syrma SGS, Boult and Optiemus are positioning themselves to tap new opportunities in telecom, automotive, and medical devices. Even Lenovo, a Chinese company, has expanded its Puducherry facility to accommodate server manufacturing—an indication that India's next manufacturing chapter is beginning to take shape. But experts warn against over-reliance on incentive schemes. 'Your business model must be viable on its own," Optiemus' Gupta says. 'We have passed the first baton," CII's Sharma says, referring to his relay analogy. 'If we fumble the next stages—building components, design, and brands—we'll never win the race."
