Electronic equipment production in India will touch $32 billion in 2011, a compound growth rate of 18 per cent from the $14 billion in 2006, according to Gartner.

Semiconductor consumption in India could nearly triple from $2.8 billion in 2006 to $7.2 billion in 2011.

The growth in electronic equipment production is being bolstered by the rapid growing demand for electronic equipment in India. 

Ganesh Ramamoorthy, principal research analyst at Gartner said, "As local manufacturing of electronics grows to keep pace with the increasing demand, semiconductor consumption will also grow at a healthy rate. Semiconductor vendors and original equipment manufacturers should fine-tune their local sales and manufacturing strategies and better position themselves to address the needs of the domestic market."  Ramamoorthy said that growing domestic demand for electronics equipment, coupled with low labour costs, a large talent pool and various recent policy initiatives, make India an attractive electronics manufacturing investment destination." 

Gartner classifies electronic equipment across six broad categories: communications electronics, data-processing electronics equipment, consumer electronics, industrial electronics, automotive electronics and military/civil aerospace electronics. 

In 2006, the consumer electronics equipment segment led the growth pack with a 39 per cent share of the overall electronic equipment production in India. The segment is primarily driven by analog cathode ray tube (CRT) TVs [Get Quote] and other audio and video equipment, including cassette tape recorders and players.

It also includes electronic appliances such as microwave ovens, washing machines, air-conditioners and calculators.  The communications electronics and data processing electronics segments had a market share of 38 per cent and 12 per cent respectively in 2006. 

In terms of the semiconductor market in 2006, the communications electronics segment held the first position with 46 per cent of the total available market, driven primarily by increased production of mobile phones. 

The data-processing electronics segment ranked second, accounting for 24 per cent of the semiconductor market, driven by the desktop and mobile PC assembling segment.