Next five years will reward customers, says Tiwari
Strat360 Private Limited, a cutting-edge research-led strategic advisory firm, says India’s capital-intensive and value-added semiconductor industry has already earned its place in global electronics and has begun its journey in packaging.
It has released a report ‘India’s Electronics and Semiconductor Industry: Potential, Recent Developments, Challenges and Policy Priorities’, which maps how the country can build on this momentum over the next five years.
“India has built a world-class assembly base, and its semiconductor journey has begun. The opportunity now is to build depth on that foundation, in components, packaging and mature-node chips. The next five years will reward what customers qualify and reorder, and India is well placed to deliver on that,” Santosh Tiwari, Founding Chair, Strat360 Private Limited, said on 15 Oct from New Delhi.
Key findings
• A strong foundation: Electronics production reached an estimated Rs. 13.11 lakh crore in FY26, up 15.8% from Rs. 11.32 lakh crore in FY25. Exports touched Rs. 4.24 lakh crore (about USD 47.96 billion), making electronics India’s third-largest export category, with mobile phones the single largest export product.
• Semiconductors have begun: Five packaging and test units have started commercial production under the India Semiconductor Mission, and Semicon 2.0, approved in July 2026 with an outlay of Rs.127,500 crore, extends this support.
• Components are gathering pace: The Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) had approved 106 projects by August 2026, with 38 plants reportedly producing. The report identifies it as the most concrete route to raising domestic value addition in phones from an estimated 18-20% toward 35-40%.
• The next frontier is depth: Components, materials, equipment, front-end fabrication and commercialised Indian chip design offer the largest headroom for growth. India’s first commercial fab at Dholera, Gujarat, is expected around mid-2028 at mature process nodes.
The report concludes that India’s realistic five-year opportunity lies in packaging and test, components, and selected mature-node and compound-semiconductor production anchored to automotive, power, industrial and strategic demand. It also recommends treating chip design as a commercialisation opportunity rather than a headcount exercise.
A roadmap for the next five years
The report outlines policy priorities to turn momentum into lasting competitiveness:
• Measure progress by qualified output, yields and value addition, alongside allocations and approvals.
• Publish regular, audit-grade data on customer qualification, order books and disbursement versus spend.
• Sustain ECMS momentum to deepen local value addition.
• Communicate the Dholera fab candidly as a mid-2028 mature-node start.
• Link subsidies to milestones with time limits, so support tapers as competitiveness grows.
• Invest in the customer side, since qualification rather than construction makes a plant real.
• Learn from Vietnam and Malaysia by hosting suppliers and customers, not just factories.
“The goal for India is resilience: credible, alternative capacity in assembly, test and components that global customers trust. With milestone-linked policy and a sharp focus on qualified output, India can move from assembly to advantage,” added Santosh Tiwari.
The report draws on government documents, trade data, company disclosures, working papers and independent research, with a research cutoff of 10 October 2026. Figures follow India’s financial year (April-March) or calendar year as labelled, and where evidence could not be verified, the report says so explicitly.
The Summary of the report is available at: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7516394917460414464
For full report, write to: chairmanoffice@strat360.co.in
About Strat360 Private Limited
Strat360 Private Limited is a cutting-edge research-led strategic advisory firm, offering management consulting, policy research, and digital solutions to companies, policymakers, investors, and industry leaders. Its approach is built on a simple belief: strategy should see around corners. In a world where AI is rewriting how work gets done and markets move faster than annual planning cycles, Strat360 acts as the lighthouse that helps organisations see the rocks ahead while their teams keep steering the ship. Learn more at strat360.co.in. fiinews.com
