MeitY approves Rs 7,172 crore electronic component investments from 17 firms under ECMS

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Monday approved Rs 7,172 crore of investments under the Electronic Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) from 17 companies, including contract manufacturers Jabil, Zetwerk and Syrma.

Spread across nine states, the investments feature the first major electronics investment in Jammu and Kashmir as well as plans to manufacture high-end enclosures and quartz crystal components for the first time in India.

The investments cumulatively will yield production worth Rs 65,111 crore and create 11,800 jobs across 17 units for multilayer printed circuit boards (PCBs), optical transceivers, camera modules, and other electronic components, electronics and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

Stronger parameters on design capability and quality will be incorporated as key criterion for vetting applications under ECMS going forward, he said. “Raising design capabilities is a non-negotiable,” he added.

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“Most of the electronics manufacturing ecosystem globally follows well-established frameworks for quality. We are asking the industry to follow those,” Vaishnaw said. “We have created an organisation, which will also be helping the industry to come up to speed with the frameworks and help them implement those.”

For many components, India will not only meet its own demand but also cater to global demand soon, the minister said.

Quartz crystals, which converts electrical signals into mechanical vibrations and vice versa, will also be made locally.

Vaishnaw said the government will soon come up with a national framework for the electronics sector, connecting social organisations with corporates, so that rural youth can get manufacturing experience.

“Youth in tier-2 and tier-3 cities will get the opportunity of hands-on training in electronics manufacturing, get a proper certificate, and then become directly employable,” he said.

The first-ever optical transceiver manufacturing units in India will be opened by electronic manufacturing services providers Jabil Circuit India, two subsidiaries of Zetwerk – Zetchem Supply Chain Services and Zetfab India, and Syrma SGS subsidiary Syrma Mobility.

Uno Minda, Aequs, Secure Circuits, and Hi-Q Electronics are among the major applicants under the scheme.

Also on Monday, fabless semiconductor design firm Cyient and Azimuth AI unveiled the first silicon-based system on chip (SoC) designed in India, the intellectual property rights of which reside domestically.

The first-generation energy-efficient Edge SoC supports smart utilities, cities, batteries, and industrial IoT, showcasing India’s shift toward a product-driven, high-performance semiconductor ecosystem.

The product has the potential for 1-3 crore pieces being ordered and deployed, out of a total market size of 30 crore pieces, said Krishna Bodanapu, managing director and executive vice chairman of Cyient.

The Centre is drawing up a list of 30 specific chipsets expected to be used widely in the country, meeting domestic needs, and ultimately exported.

A team led by the principal scientific advisor has identified the first preliminary list, which has prioritised chips across three categories – high value and low volume, medium value and medium volume, and low value and high volume, Vaishnaw said.

Last month, the Centre approved Rs 5,532 crore of investments across seven projects from SRF, Kaynes Circuits India, Syrma Strategic Electronics, and Ascent Circuits under ECMS. It had received 249 applications with proposed investments surpassing Rs 1,15,351 crore under ECMS, buoyed by interest from smaller manufacturers.