New Delhi: India's efforts to build domestic manufacturing capabilities appear to be yielding results, with import dependence declining across several key sectors, including electricals, chemicals, capital goods and consumer durables, even as global supply chains remain under pressure amid the ongoing West Asia crisis, according to a Bank of Baroda research report released on Saturday.
The report said that while the overall import intensity of India Inc has remained largely unchanged over the years, sector-level data shows a gradual shift towards greater self-reliance.
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"Though the headline imports to net sales ratio is flat, yet sector specific ratio has fallen especially where import dependency is higher," the report noted.
The study analysed 1,372 non-financial companies and found that India's overall import-to-net-sales ratio stood at 22.3 per cent in FY25, compared with 22.9 per cent in FY19.
However, the report highlighted significant improvement in several sectors where imported inputs had historically played a major role.
For electricals, the import-to-net-sales ratio fell sharply to 13.7 per cent in FY25 from 22.7 per cent in FY19. Within the sector, "the import intensity of cable has gone down to 12.5% from 21.8% in FY19," while "for electronic components as well, it has gone down substantially from 31.5% to 25.8% in FY25."
The chemicals sector also recorded a notable decline in import dependence, with the ratio falling to 22.5 per cent in FY25 from 27.5 per cent in FY19.
According to the report, "major reduction happened for Carbon black (from import to net sales ratio of 55% in FY19, it went down to 35.6% in FY25)."
The report noted that carbon black is an important intermediate input used in tyre manufacturing, plastics, electronics and batteries.
