Electronics exports during the April-October period of the current fiscal grew by 27.7% to $15.48 billion, data sourced from government and industry showed. It stood at $12.1 billion in the same period last fiscal.
Of the incremental $3.4 billion year-on-year increase in electronics exports during this period, $3 billion or 88% came on the back of an increase in mobile phone exports. Of this, the largest contributor was iPhone shipment, which at $5 billion constituted a third of India’s electronics exports.
Overall mobile phone exports increased 60% to $8 billion during the seven-month period from $4.97 billion last year, according to industry sources. Meanwhile, iPhone exports of $5 billion during the same period have already matched the export figure of the whole of FY23 .
Communications and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently said in an interview that the government is working on a strategy for export-led growth for smartphones and electronics . For this, the ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) will work closely with the ministry of finance to make movement of goods across borders very smooth. According to him, issues that need to be looked at for this are import duties, processes, automation, and warehousing.
“Today India has become part of the global value chain of mobile phones and electronics. Now we are looking at a strategy of export-led growth rather than simply import substitution and looking at our needs,” Vaishnaw said. “A great opportunity has come our way and we have reached a level where we can rapidly grow our exports,” he added.
During April-October, electronics registered the highest growth among India’s top 10 export sectors, followed by drugs and pharmaceuticals which grew at 8.14%, and cotton yarn/ fabs/ made-ups (5.65%).
Mobile phone exports doubled between FY22 and FY23, with the launch of the production-linked incentive scheme attracting global majors such as Apple, Samsung and Bharat FIH (Foxconn) as well as Indian brands.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade recently said electronics, renewable energy, IT hardware, and electric vehicles will be key to India’s $1-trillion export target by 2030.
Electronics exports have jumped from 11th position a few years ago to sixth place so far this year. Moreover, the sector’s gap with the fourth and fifth-placed exports has narrowed considerably.
The fourth-placed drugs and pharmaceuticals, which was ahead of electronics by $2.4 billion after the first seven months last fiscal, leads by a mere $300 million so far this year. Similarly, the lead of organic and inorganic chemicals over electronics narrowed from nearly $4 billion in April-October FY23 to just $200 million so far this fiscal.
Trends suggest that electronics exports will end FY24 at either the fourth or fifth position. Last fiscal, electronics exports came in at $23.55 billion, clocking an increase of 62% over $11.6 billion in FY22.
