Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: The component scheme has cleared 106 projects and ₹69,548 crore. The number that decides whether any of it matters is 38 — the plants that have actually started making something.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology cleared 31 more proposals under the Electronics Components Manufacturing Scheme on 17 August, taking the scheme to 106 approved applications covering 30 products across 15 states. The cumulative approved investment is ₹69,548 crore. Against that, the ministry projects production of ₹5,34,101 crore and 74,628 direct jobs, with a further 2.5 lakh indirect. The newest tranche carries ₹6,844 crore, plus ₹1,033 crore of additional investment cleared for Wipro Global Engineering and Electronic Materials to make copper-clad laminate — ₹7,877 crore in all, and 9,588 direct jobs.
Read past the approval count and a different picture appears. Of the 106 projects, 38 have commenced manufacturing and 16 more are at advanced stages of construction or machinery installation. That leaves 52 — almost exactly half the scheme — still at an earlier stage. The scheme is not yet an industry. It is a very large construction site with a delivery date attached.
Handing over the approvals: Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw, who presented the latest 31 ECMS clearances in New Delhi on 17 August alongside Minister of State Jitin Prasada and MeitY Secretary S. Krishnan, at an event held with the Electronic Industries Association of India.
Divide ₹5,34,101 crore of projected output by ₹69,548 crore of approved investment and you get ₹7.68 of production promised for every rupee committed. That ratio is the scheme’s entire case.
At a Glance
• Announced: 17 August 2026, by MeitY, with ELCINA
• Cumulative: 106 projects · 30 products · 15 states
• Investment approved: ₹69,548 crore, against ₹59,350 crore originally envisaged — 17.2 per cent higher
• Projected production: ₹5,34,101 crore
• Jobs: 74,628 direct · about 2.5 lakh indirect
• Built so far: 38 plants manufacturing · 16 in advanced construction
• Latest tranche: 31 projects · ₹7,877 crore · 10 states · 9,588 direct jobs
The interesting detail is not in the headline totals but in the product list. Among the newest approvals are India’s first domestic lines for acetylene black and electrolyte additives — not consumer goods, but conductive and chemical inputs that go inside a lithium-ion cell. Rare earth permanent magnets have gone to Quantum Magnetics. Hermetic terminals, the sealed electrical pass-throughs that let a wire cross a pressure barrier without leaking, have gone to JJ Glastronics. These are the unglamorous items that decide whether a battery plant or a compressor line can run without an import licence, and until now essentially none of them were made here. Filters, coils and speakers are also being made domestically for the first time under this round.
Where the scheme is already past its target, the ministry’s own figures are striking: capacity now meets the whole of domestic demand in several segments and exceeds it in others — optical transceivers at about 350 per cent of domestic requirement, relays at 200 per cent, anode material at around 110 per cent, enclosures at roughly 100 per cent. Capacity beyond domestic need is only useful if it finds buyers abroad, which turns an import-substitution scheme into an export question. The constructive test for the coming year is therefore twofold: how quickly the remaining 68 projects move from clearance to commissioning, and whether the surplus segments win their first significant export orders. Publishing a quarterly count of plants commissioned, alongside the approvals, would let the country watch the scheme convert — and would tell every component buyer in the world when to start calling India.
