BS Manthan: Dixon evaluating Gwalior to set up telecom devices mfg unit

Dixon CMD Atul Lall says India is at an electronics manufacturing inflection point and must deepen value addition, create IP and expand global capacity as schemes drive rapid sectoral growth

The country’s largest homegrown electronics manufacturing services provider Dixon Technologies on Tuesday said it was evaluating Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, to establish a manufacturing unit for telecom devices within the upcoming telecom manufacturing zone (TMZ) in the state.

 

In a fireside chat on “Industry 5.0: Scaling up India’s factories” at the Business Standard Manthan 2026, Atul Lall, vice chairman and managing director, Dixon Technologies, said the company had grown significantly to close at ₹50,000 crore this financial year. The company now has 14,000 employees and 26 factories, with a market capitalisation (mcap) of ₹65,000 crore, up from 1,400 people, four factories, and an mcap of ₹2,500 crore some eight to nine years ago.

 

 

“We are seriously evaluating Gwalior because we are one of the largest manufacturers of telecom devices, in which we have a joint venture with Bharti Airtel, and the government is hopefully rolling out a scheme called telecom manufacturing zones,” said Lall.

 

He added that the expansion beyond Northern India into Madhya Pradesh was backed by the large pool of talent available in the state with about 35-40 engineering colleges. Lall said that the company will also set up centres of excellence at BITS’ Pilani and Hyderabad campuses for developing curricula for training engineers so that the industry gets the best talent pool. “We are also working with Plaksha University in Mohali,” he added.

 

Dixon currently operates from factories in Noida, Greater Noida, Uttarakhand, Tirupati, Sri City. and Chennai. Lall added that the company was investing in setting up a display plant and had acquired a camera module factory as part of expanding mechanical enclosures as a way to deepen its manufacturing abilities.

 

Lall said that government support was required for another two to three years for taking mobile manufacturing to global markets, for deepening of manufacturing and making design-led production. “Also, the next phase is to create some Indian global brands so that the policy framework should be aligned towards achieving these objectives,” he said. Lall added that while the schemes have helped the industry to grow to $30 billion in last seven years, the aspiration was to take it to almost $500 billion.

 

“We feel we have just scratched the surface. In our industry parlance, this is the real ‘why buy’ moment for electronics manufacturing. We are at an inflection point,” Lall said.

 

He added that India had reached an inflection point in electronics manufacturing by making all its phones within the country, and now it needed to deepen value addition by making PCBs (printed circuit boards) — besides passives, antennas, mechanical enclosures, camera modules, and display devices — domestically.

 

Lall said India must create its own intellectual property (IP), for which the country would need engineers skilled in precision engineering, thermal management, optics, tools and dies, and advanced electronics.

 

A participant and beneficiary of multiple electronics manufacturing schemes by the government — Phased Manufacturing Programme, Production Linked Incentives Scheme, and Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme — Dixon was waiting for the Indian Semiconductor Mission 2.0 to be rolled out, following which the company will take a call on expanding into the semiconductor space.

 

Talking on Apple, the top executive said that the Apple ecosystem was extremely important for India as well as the industry. “It may be competition but it's a huge learning experience as well. So, we look at it from a very positive perspective,” he said.

 

On global uncertainty and tariffs, Lall said a major aspiration of the industry was to expand to global markets, including the US. While phones were carved out of tariffs impact, for other categories such as washing machines, lighting, telecom devices, routers, fixed wireless devices, and radios for telecom network, tariffs added a huge element of uncertainty. “Any amount of uncertainty is damaging for the business,” he noted.

 

The top executive added that the industry has to address the important requirement of implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) through the cultural mindset of people. “We have to partner with technology companies in our road map of AI implementation. Dixon is committed to it,” he said, noting the level of automation in dark factories.

 

On diversification of resource base outside of China, Lall said India would have to forge partnerships beyond China as the country would need to deepen its value addition.