To streamline high-tech manufacturing and ease supply chain friction, the government is introducing a new regulatory framework that will exempt advanced technology companies from mandatory Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) quality certification rules for imported components.

Speaking at the 66th Annual Session of the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA), Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal stated that high-tech industries—particularly semiconductors—will be permitted to source components globally without facing regulatory bottlenecks.

“One semiconductor company needs 13,501 components to make a chip. We are coming up with a new regulation where high-tech sectors will be exempt from all mandatory standards certifications, allowing companies to source from anywhere in the world to build resilience,” he said.

Many hi-tech manufacturing companies have pointed to the lengthy procedures and delays in getting quality approvals for many of the inputs which is slowing down their progress in India.

Goyal said India’s engagement with the US, Europe and other developed economies represented a decisive shift from the country’s earlier approach of protecting domestic industry from international competition.

“Now it is time that we go to the world. We start manufacturing across the world. We will start making our footprint in developed countries,” Goyal said.

The minister said India had concluded nine trade agreements over the past four to five years covering 38 developed countries and providing two-way market access to economies with a combined GDP of around $60 trillion.

He contrasted this with trade agreements concluded before 2014, which, according to him, collectively represented markets with a GDP of around $10 trillion at today’s value.

Goyal also proposed creating dedicated industrial infrastructure to facilitate deeper international manufacturing partnerships.

He suggested that India could develop US-India industrial parks, along with specialised parks exclusively for auto-component manufacturers, with plug-and-play infrastructure designed around the industry’s requirements. “I’d like to also invite certain countries to look at having enclaves. Maybe we should have one of these parks dedicated to a US India park,” he said.

He suggested that two or three, or even five, such parks could be developed specifically for auto components. Goyal linked India’s industrial policy increasingly to the need for resilient global supply chains.

He said government initiatives in semiconductors, speciality steel and technical textiles should not be viewed in isolation but as efforts to strengthen the manufacturing ecosystem supporting sectors such as automobiles.