Planning an Electronics Supply Chain in India: A Guide for OEMs and Startups

Planning an electronics supply chain in India comes down to a series of line-by-line decisions. For each part on the bill of materials (BOM) you decide whether it will be made locally, bought from an authorised distributor's imported stock, or imported directly, and you decide who in the chain (your team, your EMS partner or the distributor) owns that choice. The country's manufacturing base has grown fast, but the local share varies a great deal by component category, so a plan that assumes "we'll source in India" without that breakdown tends to unravel at the first RFQ.

This guide covers the India-specific layer: what the official numbers say about local capability, what the component and semiconductor schemes change for a buyer, how to split a BOM by route, and which compliance gates sit on the import path. For the general mechanics of risk scoring, multi-sourcing and continuity, follow the links to the sibling guides at the end.

What India makes, and what it still imports

MeitY's figures, given in the Lok Sabha on 1 April 2026, put electronics production at about ₹12 lakh crore in 2024-25, against about ₹1.9 lakh crore in 2014-15. Mobile phones account for much of that growth: production of about ₹5.45 lakh crore in 2024-25, with smartphones India's largest export item by value in calendar 2025.

The same answer quotes industry estimates that domestic value addition in electronics manufacturing is 18% to 20%. That figure is the one a planner should keep in mind. India assembles a great deal, but most of the value inside a typical board, the semiconductors above all and many passives, still arrives from abroad. A local EMS partner or Indian distributor is often handling imported parts.

One more detail matters when you read import data. The Department of Commerce's trade portal notes that imports are, by and large, credited to the country of consignment, not the country of origin. A reel shipped from a Singapore warehouse shows up as a Singapore import whatever fab made the die. When you need to know where a part was actually made, ask the manufacturer or authorised distributor for country-of-origin information on the line itself.

What the schemes change for a buyer (checked October 2026)

Government schemes mostly change which suppliers will exist in India over the next few years. They rarely change what a startup or mid-sized OEM can claim itself, so read them as a guide to where new local sources may appear.

Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS). Notified in April 2025, it supports Indian production of sub-assemblies, bare components, supply-chain inputs such as laminates, and capital equipment. MeitY reported in April 2026 that the outlay had been raised from ₹22,919 crore to ₹40,000 crore in Budget 2026. By 17 August 2026, 106 applications had been approved. Approvals announced in March 2026 cover display modules, connectors, relays, capacitors, resistors, inductors, Li-ion cells, flexible PCBs, copper-clad laminate and rare-earth magnets, among others. The ECMS portal shows the application window for most target segments closed on 30 September 2025, with one segment open until 30 April 2027.

For a buyer, an approval means a plant is planned, not that parts are on the shelf. Ask any ECMS-backed supplier which lines are in production, from which site, and when samples to your specification can ship.

Semicon 2.0. The Cabinet approved it on 15 July 2026 with an outlay of ₹1,27,500 crore, following the first India Semiconductor Mission programme. According to the same release, twelve manufacturing units had been approved under the first phase, most of them packaging units; three (Micron, Kaynes and CG Semi) had started commercial production, and the first silicon fab is scheduled to be commissioned in 2028. Do not plan on an Indian-made microcontroller or power IC for a product launching in the next year or two. Do watch the packaging plants, because "assembled and tested in India" may start to appear on parts you already buy.

PLI for mobile phones and IT hardware. These production-linked incentives reward finished-device makers. For a component buyer their main effect is indirect: they have drawn large EMS companies and their supply chains into India, which widens the pool of local assembly capacity.

Split the BOM into three routes

Work through the BOM and give every line one of three routes, with a reason.

Expect the "made in India" column to be strongest for build-to-print parts. A harness, a sheet-metal enclosure or a double-sided PCB can usually be sourced locally with a sample and a site visit. The semiconductor lines will almost always run through authorised distribution, and the useful question is whether the distributor holds stock in India or ships from a regional hub, because that changes lead time, duty handling and who files the bill of entry.

The electronics supplier categories on forUdyog, including PCB and PCBA makers, are a starting point for the local column. Trade shows such as electronica India in Bengaluru (listed among the related pages) are a practical way to meet several candidates in a day and see samples in person.

Decide who buys what

With an EMS partner, there are three common arrangements. In turnkey supply the EMS buys everything against your BOM. Under consignment you buy and hand the parts over. Most companies end up with a hybrid, where you control the critical lines and the EMS buys commodity parts.

Turnkey saves effort, but you still own the product. Keep the approved manufacturer list, require the EMS to buy only from listed sources, and agree in writing who holds excess or non-cancellable stock if forecasts fall. For critical parts you can nominate the distributor or buy them yourself. When assessing an EMS company, the forUdyog guide to evaluating a manufacturing partner (among the related pages) covers capability checks; for India, add the practical questions of where incoming parts are stored, who clears imports, and whether the EMS can show lot traceability from bill of entry to finished board.

Put the India compliance gates on the timeline

Compliance can stop a shipment at the port, so plan it alongside sourcing rather than after.

• BIS Compulsory Registration Scheme. BIS lists electronics and IT goods that must be registered before sale or import under Scheme II. Check the current list for your finished product and for any adaptor, battery or accessory you ship with it.
• Import policy. DGFT's General Notes on import policy state that notified electronics and IT goods, new or second-hand, cannot be imported unless registered with BIS and labelled as required, or covered by a consignment-specific MeitY exemption. Goods that arrive without it must be re-exported, failing which Customs deforms and scraps them.
• Wireless products. The WPC Wing of the Department of Telecommunications issues Equipment Type Approval for radio equipment, with a self-declaration route for many devices in de-licensed bands (checked October 2026). A certified radio module does not by itself settle the finished product's position.
• Telecom equipment. Products connecting to telecom networks fall under the Telecommunication Engineering Centre's mandatory testing and certification (MTCTE) regime, which requires certification before sale, import or use for notified equipment.

Lists and procedures change. Check the official pages for the exact model before you order tooling and again before the first commercial shipment, and use a compliance adviser where classification is unclear. Never rely on a supplier's certificate issued for a different model or factory address. The guide to electronics import documents covers the paperwork itself.

A planning calendar from BOM release to repeat builds

Before the RFQ. Freeze a BOM revision with full MPNs. Mark each line's route and the owner of the decision. List the compliance registrations the product will need and the tests that must use production-representative parts.

During quotation. Send one controlled RFQ pack to every candidate, with the BOM revision, quantities by build stage, delivery location in India, and the documents you expect with each shipment. Ask Indian suppliers for the address of the site that will make your part; ask distributors whether stock is in India or will be imported against your order.

Before the pilot. Qualify local build-to-print parts with samples to your drawing. Confirm import registrations are in place for anything that needs them. Agree excess-stock terms with the EMS.

After the pilot. Review which imported lines could move to a qualified Indian source, and which Indian sources depend on one imported input. Repeat the review each year, as new ECMS plants start production.

When you are ready to describe the requirement, you can post a QUICK RFQ on the RFQ page and use the supplier categories to build the longlist you will qualify.

Related guides

• Make-in-India electronics sourcing strategy, on localisation targets and domestic sourcing decisions
• Planning component sourcing before product development, for the decisions engineering makes before the schematic is frozen
• Electronics supply chain risk management, for scoring and monitoring risk once the chain is running