5G and manufacturing: Ushering in a new age for engineering

In the last two decades, India witnessed instrumental growth in the IT industry, which accelerated the country’s economic development. Today, this sector is slowly seeing new entrants as multinational companies are establishing alternate locations in south-east Asia. We have to get out of our infatuation with IT as a sector that sees the maximum enrolment (along with Comp. sci.) for engineering. A good and prudent option would be for us to refocus a portion of this talent pipeline into what we call core engineering roles. Let me explain. 

After the covid-19 pandemic, many international manufacturing companies resorted to diversifying their production plants from China. This change in direction was done to mitigate the risk involved in depending on a single market. This opened up massive investment opportunities in countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and India. 

We were quick to capitalize on this opportunity by introducing the Production Linked-Incentive (PLI) scheme. This bundled with the modified Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC) 2.0 and Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS) schemes launched in early 2020 have made our nation the most lucrative foreign direct investment opportunity for the global manufacturing supply chain. This focus has the ability to be the pivot for domestic manufacturing, which can further drive economic growth and job opportunities. 

It has been predicted that by 2030, the manufacturing sector can add more than US$ 500 billion annually to the global economy. This sector is gradually shifting to a more automated, process-driven manufacturing industry to encompass a stronger supply chain to include design, fabrication, assembly, and packaging. 

Recently, 31 companies have been approved for the telecom PLI scheme and soon we will see a spike in the local hiring of technicians and hardware engineers. In addition to this, 5G is also being rolled out across the nation and will add to the demand for engineers for RF, core, passive and other services. 

Companies have already started mapping out the hiring patterns and are beginning to create teams to break ground for the factories. Now looking from a supply perspective, I must admit we are falling short. Ever since the IT boom of the early 21st century students usually opt for IT and computer science. I do not blame them as India was focusing heavily on dominating this space and we were better off for it. Now, however, we must look with a fresh perspective and analyse the best direction for our youth. There needs to be a conscientious focus on enhancing core engineering talent to support the evolving national goals. We need a government and industry-led intervention to propagate this idea to the masses, especially on what types of jobs are on the horizon.  

As a nation, we are moving towards becoming a design and manufacturing hub by broadening and deepening our electronics and telecom manufacturing ecosystem. To bring this to fruition, we need adequate infrastructure, domestic supply chains and logistics, and most importantly, an efficient workforce. To build the framework for the emergence of a new and vigorous industry, we must focus on a holistic approach to creating value for the global market. We must scale the workforce to match the ambitious goals of the industry at large. 

Core engineering skills should be given special focus to enable a smooth transition for the companies (overseas) coming in. This will not only ensure high-quality work but also make us a dependable nation similar to nations such as Japan (technology) and Germany (engineering). India currently churns out a staggering volume of engineers and helps to focus their direction by nurturing these young minds will benefit both them and the nation.  

Hence, we must start with the right approach and mentality. The government and industry are both aligned in this aspect. It is now the time for academia and the skill ecosystem to provide the necessary support to help them usher in the next stage of the development of our nation. We need to seed the courses and lead the way to stay ahead of the curve. This will stimulate the demand for hardware engineers and network technicians.  

The road towards becoming an exporter of human resource is a long and arduous one. We face many challenges in the form of quality, availability, location, etc. In order to compete and be at par with the world skills standard, we must focus on clear and tangible objectives.

Arvind Bali

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Arvind Bali is the CEO of the Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC).