India’s imports of telecom products exceeded its exports by seven times in FY24. According to the data provided by the Department of Telecommunications, India imported telecom products exceeding ₹1,46,000 crore in the last fiscal year, meanwhile export of telecom products was valued at approximately ₹20,000 crore during the same period.
In fact India’s export of telecom goods has been falling for the last three years according to DoT’s data. In FY22, right around the time that the Indian government announced a production linked incentive scheme for telecom products India had exported telecom goods exceeding Rs 60,000 crore. However, two years on, exports have been reduced to a third.
DoT’s telecom PLI scheme has 42 beneficiaries, to whom the Centre has committed a total outlay worth ₹4,115 crore. At present it is in its third year of implementation, however imports of telecom goods have only risen marginally in the interim three years.
According to DoT’s data, India imported telecom goods worth ₹1,22,000 crore in FY22, this rose to ₹1,36,000 crore in FY23 to the current figure of approximately ₹1,46,000 crore in FY24.
Right before the elections, the outgoing Minister of Communications Ashwini Vaishnaw called the Centre’s make in India initiative a resounding success – noting that top equipment manufacturers like Nokia and Ericsson are making 90 per cent of their equipment in India. Experts had hoped that the opening of telecommunication standards through OpenRAN will further democratize the manufacturing of telecom goods, by allowing smaller players to enter the fray as well.
Telecom operators like Reliance claim that they are deploying “made in India,” network equipment in their 5G network however, as per DoT’s data the trade deficit for telecommunications and network equipment has only risen in the last two years.