India can simultaneously boost its economy and break free from its dependence on China by onshoring fabrication of hardware and electronics.
With almost every pillar of our lives having onboarded onto the digital realm—financial, health, communication, entertainment, and education—it is inevitable for India to enforce its techno-sovereignty by securing all upstream and downstream dependencies of its digital networks. This includes the digital platforms themselves, the cyber-security protocols, communication networks, the cloud and data centres, the upgrade and interoperability mechanisms, and crucially, fabrication of the hardware components underlying these systems.
India is a first mover in the space of digital public goods (DPGs), having built massive, interoperable, multi-platform technology networks collectively called India Stack to ensure that digital and financial services are accessible and affordable for its 1.39 billion citizens. The country also hosts the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world that utilises technology networks and DPGs to address market needs and serve the Indian citizenry. In addition, India has taken a hard stance over the last year to protect its national sovereign interests against external players. In June 2020, amidst suspicions of privacy breaches and the use of data against national security, the Indian government banned over 200 Chinese mobile phone applications. This move provided an incredible stimulus to Indian technology providers to build indigenous applications and platforms. Unlike most nations that are passive app-consumers, India is both a prolific consumer and producer of apps and digital media.
India is a first mover in the space of digital public goods (DPGs), having built massive, interoperable, multi-platform technology networks collectively called India Stack to ensure that digital and financial services are accessible and affordable for its 1.39 billion citizens.
Within these three vectors, India is re-engineering how 1.39 billion people emerge as fully involved techno-citizens and is one of the three continental-scale digital powers, alongside China and the US. Consequently, the country is now converging at massive requirements for world-class hardware.
Sourcing for this extensive hardware demand is the next challenge. The requirement includes mobile phones, handheld devices, and other consumer electronics for 1.39 billion people, government and private office hardware procurement, cloud infrastructure, telecommunication networks, data centres for ever-increasing data localisation and storage, and industrial and strategic electronics. In addition, India’s healthcare system is on the cusp of rapid expansion and digitisation. The proposed National Health Stack will also drive these hardware requirements, along with various post-COVID-19 protocols. India also runs some of the largest school and college systems in the world. To revamp the education system integrated with technology, driven by the proposed National Educational Policy 2020, hardware requirements to provide schools, colleges, and the next generations with the latest technology and devices will shoot up. Stacking all these together amounts to a massive hardware install base over the next 10 years. It is imperative that the country forecasts, plans, and develops viable supply chains to sustain large scale procurement.
To revamp the education system integrated with technology, driven by the proposed National Educational Policy 2020, hardware requirements to provide schools, colleges, and the next generations with the latest technology and devices will shoot up.
Thus far, India has primarily relied on imports for hardware technology design and supply. Electronic goods imports have grown from US $4 billion in 2000-01 to US $55.6 billion in 2018-19, at a compound annual growth rate of 15.7 percent. Meanwhile, production of electronic goods in India has doubled from US $28.7 billion in 2013-14 to US $60.2 billion in 2017-18, which includes consumer, industrial, and …….