Overview
- The GTRI report, released Tuesday, says China now supplies 30.8% of the industrial goods India needs for manufacturing.
- It finds that 98.5% of India’s purchases from China are industrial products, with electronics, machinery and computers, and organic chemicals totaling about $82.6 billion or 66% of the flow.
- China provides 43% of India’s electronics imports, 40% of machinery and computer imports, and 44% of organic chemicals, which include parts, batteries, solar modules, APIs, and specialty chemicals that factories cannot easily swap.
- Imports from China have doubled in five years to about $131.6 billion in FY2025–26, while exports to China were about $19.5 billion, leaving a trade gap near $112.1 billion.
- GTRI says India should build domestic capacity, bring in non‑China suppliers, and cap any single‑country share below 30%, and it warns that looser investment rules could let Chinese carmakers assemble locally yet import key parts, cutting local value added as seen in Thailand.