The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has launched the pilot project on electronics repair services outsourcing (ERSO), which aims to capture 20% of the $100bn global electronics repair industry.
The project will allow companies to repair consumer electronics devices sent from other countries by relaxing import-export rules, and is expected to ease logistics times and business costs.
While the ministry did not provide further details of the legislative changes that would allow India to become a repair hub, the Economic Times said the government would now approve the import and export of electronics products within a day as part of the pilot.
This is down from the current timescale of around 10 days and will make it feasible for companies to import electronic devices for repair.
“The project has been identified as a gamechanger for India and has been supported by the government to make India a world leader in a hitherto untapped domain,” said MeitY.
The three-month project has introduced policy and process changes after “in-depth discussions with the repair industry” and these are being validated for their efficacy and efficiency, according to the ministry’s statement.
It said five companies would take part in the project – Flex, Lenovo, CTDI, R-Logic and Aforeserve.
The Manufacturers Association of Information Technology (MAIT) had been pushing for these changes and said the move would ease logistics times and costs.
"Repair outsourcing will incentivise electronic manufacturers to further expand their production capabilities in India. This is a critical step towards ensuring resilience to supply chain shocks,” MAIT director general Ali Akhtar Jafri told Reuters.
“The revised custom process will be set as precedence for such process refinements that ease dwell time at ports and will contribute immensely towards ease of doing business and speed of doing business in India,” Jafri additionally told The Economic Times.
“The ERSO pilot is the first step towards making India the global repair hub of the world”
The repair outsourcing market is currently dominated by China and Malaysia.