Electronics industry outlook positive for mid to long term: Manish Sharma of FICCI

While underscoring the need for enabling tech-based micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), Sharma said there's huge traction in small and medium enterprises at this point, .

He added that electronics industry has already started playing a significant role across verticals. "The second aspect is that today, the electronics industry has started to play a major role because it cuts across almost every vertical, whether it is medical industrial telecom, of course, consumer electronics and so forth," he said.

Manufacturing mixed

Sentiments across India's manufacturing sector remain upbeat but exports are witnessing headwinds, as per key findings by a survey conducted by FICCI.

FICCI asked 400 respondents across nine sectors to study the trends in Q1FY24. It covered companies with a combined annual turnover of nearly Rs 7.70 lakh crore.

Fifty-seven percent of the respondents expect a higher level of production in the April-June quarter with an average increase in production likely to be in the single digits. In addition to this, 58 percent said a higher number of orders has been seen in Q1. They felt that domestic demand is largely driving growth, with exports facing severe challenges. Only 28 percent of the respondents expected higher exports in the first quarter. The respondents felt that companies that are heavily dependent on exports are likely to suffer.

The study showed that metals and metal products, textiles and apparels, toys and handicrafts, chemical and fertilisers industries expect moderate to low single-digit growth in the first quarter whereas electronics and white goods, auto and auto components, cement, machine tools see very strong to moderately strong growth.