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India needs to formalize its domestic market for third-party electronics repair and refurbishment to tap a $20 billion business opportunity amid growing demand for refurbished devices, according to industry stakeholders.
Ajai Chowdhry, founder of technology services firm HCL and chairman of the Electronic Products Innovation Consortium (EPIC), said the market for electronics refurbishment and repair is growing. “The smartphone refurbishing market alone is estimated at $10 billion a year,” he said, adding that the combined electronics repair market could be $20 billion.
Chowdhry added that the first steps are being taken to formalize the repair industry, which includes steps like Flipkart’s acquisition in January this year, when Flipkart acquired renovation and repair services start-up Yantra. While examples are still limited, services like Onsite-Go and Urban Company have begun offering home repairs for smartphones, laptops and other common devices. In fact, Onsite-Go also offers Annual Maintenance Contracts (AMC) for servicing and repairing consumer gadgets.
Industry body Manufacturers Association for Information Technology (Mait) presented the benefits of these services to IT Minister Ashwin Vaishnaw on 7 September. Nitin Kunkolienker, president emeritus of Mait, said incentivizing local component manufacturing could be critical to the growth of these services.
“One of the key aspects of promoting the domestic economy of repair services is to ensure that parts are sourced locally, which has not happened much. India has a robust supply chain that caters to various industries that can diversify and procure and manufacture components that are critical to the growth of the local repair economy,” Kunkolienker said.
Meanwhile, Nitin Gupta, managing director of e-waste recycling company Attero India, said the company has seen a clear increase in the volume of e-waste it collects and recycles each year, although the benefits of these measures have not reached companies in the Czech Republic. India yet.
