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India’s telecom ambition is shifting from producing more finished equipment to owning more of the technology and value inside it: radio access systems, components, semiconductor capability, design and intellectual property. That shift matters because assembling a network product locally does not necessarily mean its most strategic or valuable layers are made or developed in India.
What “beyond assembly” means in telecom
Telecom and network equipment includes radio access network (RAN) equipment, routers and switches, optical-fibre infrastructure, microwave apparatus and related networking systems. Assembly is one stage in that chain. Deeper participation can include designing equipment, making components and subassemblies, developing software and intellectual property, and building the skills and testing capacity needed to bring products to market.
These layers capture different kinds of value and create different capabilities. A locally assembled base station can still rely on imported components or externally developed designs. Conversely, domestic component production or Indian-owned design can contribute to the supply chain even when a finished product contains inputs from several countries. “Made in India” is therefore not a single measure of technological ownership.
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A NITI Aayog sector-analysis search-result extract reports Department of Telecommunications figures for “localization overall” in selected equipment categories. The available extract does not establish the table’s year or provide its full context, so these percentages should be read as reported category-specific localisation figures—not as a current measure of India’s total telecom imports or of all deep-tech dependence.
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| Equipment category | Reported overall localisation |
|---|---|
| 4G/LTE RAN base stations | 4% |
| 5G RAN base stations | 5% |
| Switches | 3% |
| GPON optical network terminals (ONTs) | 12% |
| Wi-Fi access points/controllers | 5% |
| Internet set-top boxes | 5% |
The figures point to a gap between having local assembly or production and building a broader domestic equipment ecosystem. They do not, on their own, identify which components are imported, measure local design ownership, or show how localisation has changed over time.
Why the policy debate is about value capture
Design, components and intellectual property
Business Standard reported on 11 October 2026 that critical deep-tech layers in telecom are “more than 70 per cent import-dependent,” attributing the figure to a KPMG report. The underlying report, its scope, methodology and data period were not identified in the available account, so the figure should be treated as a reported estimate rather than an independently confirmed measure. The article’s central concern is nevertheless clear: expanding assembly alone does not ensure domestic control of high-value design, semiconductor-related capabilities, radio systems or IP.
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A wider manufacturing ecosystem
The NITI Aayog sector-analysis extract frames telecom and network equipment as a strategic manufacturing sector and identifies deeper localisation, component-ecosystem development, technology transfer, export orientation and workforce development as parts of moving beyond assembly. In practice, these priorities are connected. Component makers need dependable customers; equipment developers need testing and certification capacity; and firms need engineers and manufacturing expertise to move from prototypes to reliable, deployable products.
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National Telecom Policy 2025 targets for 2030
The NITI Aayog extract represents the National Telecom Policy 2025 as setting ambitions for 2030 to double telecom’s contribution to GDP and product-and-service exports, double research and development spending on emerging telecom technologies, and create one million new jobs. These are policy targets, not reported achievements. Their relevance to deep technology depends on whether additional investment and production build lasting domestic capabilities, rather than only increasing output of assembled products.
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A successor production-linked incentive scheme remains a proposal
Mint reported on 6 October 2026 that the Department of Telecommunications had submitted a proposed successor telecom production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme and that the Union finance ministry was reviewing it. The proposal was described as more focused on component manufacturing than the existing scheme. Mint reported a proposed outlay of ₹6,000–7,000 crore over five years; those details were not an approved allocation.
Mint also reported proposed targets of 9,000 direct jobs, ₹3 trillion in sales and ₹1.5 trillion in additional exports, attributing them to people familiar with the plan. They are proposal figures, not government commitments or achieved results. The policy question is not only how much support is offered, but whether it helps firms develop competitive components, products and IP that can attract repeat orders at home and abroad.
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Why execution is harder than setting a target
Working capital and supply-chain shocks
Mint quoted Rakesh Bhatnagar, director general of VoICE, saying that some companies—particularly MSMEs—struggled with global component shortages, including semiconductors, and lacked the working capital to absorb supply-chain shocks. That is an industry-association executive’s assessment, not an official evaluation. It highlights a practical risk: a smaller manufacturer can have a viable product and still be unable to finance inventory, production delays or the time between supplying equipment and receiving payment.
Testing, certification and skilled teams
Deeper localisation also calls for the capacity to validate equipment and train a workforce across design, production and deployment. The NITI Aayog extract discusses testing and certification as well as skills. These are not peripheral tasks: network equipment must meet technical and operational requirements before operators can rely on it, and firms need qualified people to develop, manufacture, integrate and maintain it.
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Orders and export competitiveness
Incentives can lower the cost of building production capacity, but they cannot by themselves guarantee demand or make products competitive. Operators and integrators need equipment that meets their requirements; manufacturers need enough predictable orders to invest in components and R&D; and export ambitions require products that can compete beyond a protected domestic market. The transition is strongest when public support helps bridge early capability gaps without becoming a substitute for product quality, customer demand or commercially sustainable production.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.An example of an indigenous telecom stack in deployment
Tata Group describes TCS, C-DOT and Tejas Networks as collaborators on an indigenous telecom stack for BSNL, with Tejas supplying the baseband and radio units for BSNL’s pan-India deployment. This company account illustrates that domestic stack development and deployment are not merely aspirations. It does not establish that every component or technology in the supply chain is domestic, nor does one deployment demonstrate the localisation level of the sector as a whole.
How to judge whether the shift is working
Production totals alone cannot show whether India is moving from assembly toward technology ownership. A more useful assessment looks across the value chain:
- Domestic value captured: distinguish final assembly from locally made components, Indian-led design and domestically owned IP.
- Supply-chain depth: track whether local suppliers are developing dependable components and subassemblies, not just completing final products.
- Technical capability: look for sustained R&D, testing and certification capacity, and a workforce able to develop and support advanced equipment.
- Commercial durability: assess repeat operator orders, production that can continue beyond incentives, and exports—not just announced capacity or proposed targets.
- Transparent measurement: compare like-for-like localisation figures with clear definitions, dates and equipment categories. A category-level localisation percentage should not be treated as a proxy for all telecom technology or all imports.
The direction of travel is clear in the policy debate: India wants to capture more value from telecom technology, not only manufacture or assemble more equipment. Whether that ambition produces lasting deep-tech strength will depend on the capabilities and commercially viable supply chains built underneath the headline targets.
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