Manish Sharma, Chairman of India and South Asia of Panasonic Life Solution India and a member of the industry body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), said in an exclusive conversation with CNBC TV18 that for electronic goods, “the mid to long terms looks very promising.”
Sharma added that the industry has already started seeing positive developments. He cited an example of the Rs 90,000-crore consumer appliance industry, 25 percent of which comprises the AC industry. He said due to PLI and other government incentives, the air-conditioner industry has received an investment of over Rs 2,000 crore against an expected Rs 1,000 crore.
"So, that is the speed at which … fundamentally because of a very large opportunity… the industry is essentially getting fuel from the aspirations of the people of the country. Also (there are) lower penetration ratios of such categories," he added.
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.
