Technology Boost To Designing Products: Industry Leaders Outline Key Areas To Make India Global Production Hub

India is on the cusp of a "transformative" decade in the global electronics business, according to Sunil Vachani, Executive Chairman, Dixon Technologies (India). 

Speaking on the eve of Independence Day, Vachani projected a bullish outlook for India as a global electronics hub, citing a shift in mindset and supportive government policies such as the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme.

“If you see what has happened in the last 10 years, we've just scratched the surface. The global market for electronics is $3 trillion. And we're at about 3% or $120-130 billion. What's going to happen in the next 10 years is going to be transformative,” he said in a conversation with NDTV Profit on Thursday. 

Vachani outlined four key pillars for long-term success: scaling up to achieve global competitiveness, strengthening the local supply chain, investing in Industry 4.0 skills, and shifting focus from merely making in India to designing in India.

“I think as a country and as an industry, we'll have to look at designing more and more products. We'll have to emerge as a products nation. And the focus will have to be on not just to make in India, but to design products in India,” he said.

Vachani credited the 'Make in India' initiative, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for sparking a mindset shift. “When the call comes from the top, then things just fall into place,” he noted.

Ankit Mehta, CEO of Ideaforge, said the drone industry is expected to be driven by three core segments in future: defence, civil applications and logistics. The defence sector is going to account for nearly half of the overall business for the drone industry in the future, he said.

“There is going to be a segment in defence, which is going to continue to occupy near 40% or 50% of what the overall business is going to be. We will have the civil sector, which is again going to occupy a very similar segment if you look at FY27-28. And then there is also the sector of logistics that is going to pick up because that is a big civil application,” Mehta said. 

“Eventually, all three will be roughly equal segments in the industry in the long term. When the mobility segment comes, it will be a much larger beast in itself,” he added.

Mehta highlighted the importance of anticipating market trends and investing in cutting-edge technologies to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sector.

“Projecting what the world will need or the customer will need and building for it ahead of time is going to be very important and that's what's going to differentiate good businesses from normal businesses in this industry,” the top executive emphasised.