Indian robotics is shackled by high duties. The government must free it

livemint.com:

draft of the National Strategy on Robotics. Robotics has been receiving a lot of attention lately as one of the27 focus sectors under the Make In India 2.0 initiative. Here you can hear the union minister of electronics and information technology talk about the potential of AI and robotics in India.

With this strategy document, the government aims to position India as a global leader in robotics manufacturing and enhance its integration with the global robotics chain. India is far from becoming a robotics manufacturing giant. The Indian robotics market is projected to generate revenue of $810.50 million in 2023, which is just one-eighth of the Chinese robotics market’s projected revenue.

A big reason for this disparity is high costs, which tie the hands of manufacturers, crippling their ability to scale production and exports. High import duties in particular play an important role in increasing the cost of production. Robotics manufacturers in India are heavily reliant on imports for raw materials.

A typical robotics bill-of-materials has the following components: core computer components like microcontrollers, actuators like motors and wheels, and sensors like lidars and cameras. India is one of the top three importers of microcontrollers, actuators and sensors. Duties, therefore, have an undue impact on our ability to be competitive in this market.

Indian customs duty on robotics components is significantly higher than that of Southeast Asian competitors such as Vietnam and Thailand. These countries levy no basic customs duty on key robotics components, something Vietnam has been doing since 2015. (Here’s the Vietnam tariff schedule).