The government may announce the next tranche of successful beneficiaries under the Electronic Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) by next month, according to officials. Units manufacturing items needed for India in the upstream supply chain ecosystem and high-precision capital equipment will be in focus, they said.

These include laminates, metallised films for capacitors, aluminium extrusions, anode materials and rare earth permanent magnets from rare-earth oxides.

The first investments in domestic production of surface mount device passives and flexible printed circuit boards, as well antennas, heat sinks, transducers, inductors and metal film resistors have already been approved under the ECMS. Officials said these will be expanded.


Firms committing to a minimum level of investment in designing capabilities will also be prioritised, they added.

It comes after electronics and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw cautioned that ECMS participants not investing in designing capabilities will be “weeded out” from the scheme and disbursals for the Rs 40,000 crore scheme stopped by changing its guidelines.

Since the warning was issued on March 31, firms have submitted investment plans mentioning clear designing components across the value chain, officials said. These include conceptual, engineering and manufacturing designs, as well as general arrangement drawings.

Aimed at building a domestic manufacturing ecosystem from scratch, the ECMS has so far seen investment proposals worth Rs 61,671 crore for 75 projects being approved across four tranches.

These target overall production worth Rs 4.51 lakh crore and are projected to create more than 65,000 direct jobs. According to official figures, the electronics sector employs 2.5 million people in India, of which 1.4-1.5 million work in mobile phone manufacturing.