National Resilience | Industrial Sovereignty | Strategic Preparedness
The Sector at a Glance
Electronics and electricals are now central to Bharat's industrial trajectory; not as a support sector, but as a defining layer of modern manufacturing capability. The sector covered under this tab extends across consumer electronics and mobile devices, IT hardware, telecom equipment, industrial electronics and automation, medical electronics, automotive and defence electronics, and on the electrical side, motors, transformers, switchgear, cables and wires, meters, lighting, household appliances, and the power electronics that link renewable energy, storage and the grid.
The scope of this tab covers the full value chain behind these products: semiconductors and display technologies, passive and active components, printed circuit boards and their assembly, sub-systems and modules, embedded software and firmware, product design, testing and certification, electrical equipment for generation, transmission and distribution, after-sales repair, and the recovery of materials at end of life. Assembly capacity has expanded considerably, yet the next phase requires a shift toward value addition within the country; and it is the depth of this chain, rather than the volume of assembled output, that determines technological sovereignty.
Why This Sector Is Critical
Electronics and electrical systems form the operational backbone of critical infrastructure. Power grids, telecommunications networks, railway signalling, banking systems, hospitals, water treatment, defence platforms and industrial automation all run on circuits, controllers, transformers and switchgear. Digital infrastructure, renewable energy, mobility transitions and defence modernisation each depend on a robust electronics and electrical base, and the reliability of that base is non-negotiable. A failure or compromise in this layer propagates instantly into every system that depends on it.
The structural vulnerabilities are well known. Chips, display panels, many components and much of the specialised production equipment are still imported, often from a small number of jurisdictions; supply disruptions in recent years have shown how quickly production lines can stop when a single component is unavailable; and imported electronics embedded in grids and networks raise questions of hidden functionality and trusted supply. This has reinforced the need for domestic capability that is not only cost competitive but also resilient under stress conditions; and the BAP-I mandate treats this as a matter of sovereign capability rather than trade arithmetic.
The Bharat Context
Make in India has already expanded assembly capacity in segments such as mobile phones, appliances, LED lighting and power equipment, and Bharat has an established base in heavy electrical equipment, cables and meters. The deficit lies upstream. Domestic value addition in electronics remains shallow in many categories; component manufacturing, semiconductor fabrication, display production and advanced packaging are at an early stage; indigenous design ownership of products remains limited; and lower-tier MSMEs often lack the capital, testing infrastructure and certification support needed to enter global supply chains.
The enabling environment is now considerable. The India Semiconductor Mission, the Design Linked Incentive scheme, the PLI schemes for Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing, IT Hardware and White Goods, the Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors, the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme and the modified Electronics Manufacturing Clusters scheme address fabrication, design, components and infrastructure. The BIS Compulsory Registration Scheme sets safety and quality baselines, while the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme, Digital India and the National Green Hydrogen Mission generate demand for smart meters, grid electronics and power conversion. Institutions such as C-DAC, the Semi-Conductor Laboratory, BEL, BHEL and CPRI provide anchors for design, defence electronics, heavy electricals and testing. What remains missing is a coherent strategy that moves the sector from assembly-led growth to component and design depth, with supply chain risk explicitly assessed; and this is the role BAP-I seeks to play through this tab.
Importance of the Sector
Economy
Electronics is among the largest items in Bharat's import bill, and electrical equipment underpins every rupee of infrastructure investment. Deepening domestic value addition in components, semiconductors and sub-systems would retain value within the country, improve the trade balance and make downstream manufacturing more competitive. The sector also acts as a horizontal enabler: automotive, defence, energy, telecom, healthcare and agriculture all become more productive as electronic content rises. Export competitiveness in this sector, if built on genuine design and component depth, can position Bharat as a trusted manufacturing hub in global value chains.
Employment
Electronics and electrical manufacturing is among the more labour-absorbing forms of modern industry. Assembly, testing and packaging lines create large-scale employment, often with high participation of women, while component manufacturing, PCB fabrication, tool rooms and electrical equipment plants create skilled technical jobs. Upstream, chip design, embedded software, power electronics, reliability engineering and product design demand highly trained engineers, and repair, installation and maintenance services sustain a wide base of technicians across the country. Strengthening technical education and industry-academia collaboration is essential to match this demand.
Entrepreneurship
The sector offers MSMEs and start-ups many points of entry that do not require a fabrication plant: fabless chip design, IoT modules, industrial controllers, power electronics for solar and storage, smart meters, test and measurement instruments, EMS services, repair and refurbishment, and e-waste recovery. Design-linked incentives, cluster infrastructure, common testing facilities and access to public procurement can help such enterprises grow into product companies. It is argued that Bharat's electronics future will be decided by how many indigenous product designers it creates; and that demands patient support from prototype to certified, market-ready product.
Partnership
Building this ecosystem requires partnership between large manufacturers and MSME suppliers for localisation of components, between academia, C-DAC and industry for design and research, between public sector undertakings and private firms for strategic electronics and heavy electricals, and between central and state governments for aligned cluster policies. Partnerships with trusted international firms and countries in semiconductors, displays and equipment can accelerate progress, provided they are structured to transfer capability and secure supply. BAP-I positions itself as the convening platform where these stakeholders can meet on shared research questions.
Research Focus Possibilities
BAP-I invites original research articles, policy papers, technical reports, diagnostic assessments, case studies and white papers across the following indicative research streams. The list is open-ended; contributions that connect a new question to the resilience objective of this tab are equally welcome.
A. Semiconductors, Components and Manufacturing Depth
- Supply chain mapping of critical components and sub-systems, and risk assessment of import dependencies in chips, displays, passives and PCBs
- Pathways for domestic value addition across product categories, with benchmarking of manufacturing depth against global competitors
- Integration of national semiconductor fabrication, packaging and testing initiatives with domestic industrial demand
- Cluster models linking MSME component makers with large assemblers and EMS firms
B. Electronics in Critical Infrastructure
- Trusted supply, hardware security and testing of imported electronics deployed in power, telecom, transport and defence systems
- Redundancy and fail-safe design frameworks for control electronics in critical installations
- Indigenous industrial control systems, PLCs, SCADA hardware and communication modules for utilities and process industries
C. Power Electronics and Electrical Systems for Energy Transition
- Indigenous inverters, converters and power electronics for solar, wind, storage and electric mobility
- Domestic manufacturing capacity for transformers, switchgear, cables and smart meters against the demands of grid expansion
- Grid modernisation, smart electrical systems and the integration of battery storage within distribution networks
- Reliability, standards and lifecycle performance of electrical equipment under Indian climatic and grid conditions
D. Policy, Skills, Circularity and Global Integration
- Evaluation of PLI and component incentive schemes on domestic value addition rather than assembly volume
- Workforce readiness in chip design, electronics manufacturing and system integration, including curriculum gap analysis
- Repair ecosystems, right-to-repair considerations, circular design and integration of recovered materials into manufacturing
- Identification of high-potential export segments and compliance with international quality and safety standards
Who Can Participate
This tab invites participation from electronics and electrical manufacturers, EMS providers and component makers, MSME clusters, semiconductor and design firms, C-DAC, the Semi-Conductor Laboratory and CSIR laboratories, IITs, IIITs, NITs and engineering colleges, defence public sector undertakings and DRDO laboratories engaged in electronics, power utilities and testing bodies such as CPRI, standards and certification agencies including BIS, electronics and electrical industry associations, state industrial development bodies, policy think tanks, international collaborators and individual researchers with domain expertise. Contributions from practitioners, policymakers and academics carry equal standing within the BAP-I research framework.
The Resilience Objective
Every contribution under this tab must serve one purpose: strengthening Bharat's capacity to design, manufacture, secure and sustain the electronics and electrical systems on which its critical infrastructure depends. BAP-I treats research here as the instrument through which manufacturing depth, trusted supply and technological sovereignty are identified, measured and built.
