Industry not worried about supply chain constraints due to export restrictions: Ashwini Vaishnaw

IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

Industry is not worried about supply chain constraints arising out of restrictions imposed by China on export of rare earth elements, said Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday.

"We have had discussions with the industry ... The industry feels that it will be able to figure out alternatives. Since Covid, the entire world has been preparing for diversifying value chains," Vaishnaw said at a press conference after inauguration of VVDN Technologies' new SMT Line at the company's Global Innovation Park and the Mechanical Innovation Park in Manesar.

On April 4, China's Ministry of Commerce imposed export restrictions on seven rare earth elements (REEs) and magnets used in the defense, energy, and automotive sectors in response to US President Donald Trump's tariffs on Chinese products.

Meanwhile, Vaishnaw informed that the guidelines for the electronic component scheme is nearly ready and that the government will soon be opening the portal from where interested parties can apply for the scheme.

Earlier this month, the government notified the nearly Rs 24,000 crore scheme to boost production of electronic components and sub-components such as PCB, camera components and so on.

Vaishnaw said that he expects marked improvement in production of PCB assembly, camera module and so on as a result of this scheme in the short term. "I would prefer entire camera is made in India," he added.

VVDN's newly inaugurated SMT Line supports PCB sizes up to 850mm x 560mm, with a high-speed capacity of 250,000 CPH (components per hour), the company said in a release.

This will enable VVDN to manufacture large and complex products such as Al servers, networking equipment, and motherboards - helping reduce import dependence and strengthening India's supply chain resilience.

The Mechanical Innovation Park, spanning 1,50,000 sq. ft., will house mold and tool-making setups, including CNC, EDM, and Wire Cut machines, and modern injection molding machines-creating a fully integrated mechanical design-to-manufacturing ecosystem, the company added.