The share of Chinese products in the country's imports basket of mobile and other telecommunications equipment has increased to 69.4 per cent in 2016-17, a report published by the Broadband India Forum (BIF) said here on Thursday.
The report -- which highlighted the significant issues affecting India's indigenous mobile telephony and other telecommunications equipment sector growth -- revealed that high imports of mobile and telecommunication equipments is one of the major challenges for the sector.
The BIF report said the import of mobile and other telecommunications equipment account for 26.4 per cent of the country's total imports.
"The share of Chinese products in this basket is continually rising and its share has increased from 64.3 per cent in 2012-13 to 69.4 per cent in 2016-17," it said.
According to the report, high dependence on imported components is a reason for relatively low manufacturing value added (MVA) by Indian manufacturers.
"With an increasing number of foreign manufacturers now manufacturing in India, Indian companies must be willing to step up their innovation and R&D (research and development) efforts to remain competitive in their own market," said T.V. Ramachandran, President, BIF.
The report pointed out that "standardisation" and "innovation" have been the cornerstones of the sustained growth momentum of the mobile telephony in the last three decades.
"With the onset of 5G and the rapid growth of Internet of Things (IoT), machine-to-machine communications, artificial intelligence, and applications like smart cities on the anvil, the need for sustained industry effort on these fronts is required," it said.
Mobile phones with a MVA of 18.3 per cent and corresponding value addition multiplier effect of 5.89 implies that the total value addition to the economy due to increase in demand for mobiles will be significant, the report said.
"Hence, mobile phones require greater attention under 'Make in India' to increase the contribution of the manufacturing sector to the GDP."
Ramachandran added: "By stepping up its innovative framework the Indian mobile industry will be better placed to contribute to the global standardisation process."
"This will also determine its role in the upcoming 5G ecosystem that promises to be truly transformational and one that the government intends to deeply integrate with the flagship Make-In-India programme," he added.
--IANS
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