We will never know until we try. Only recently has India started to even try to manufacture semiconductor chips and other electronic items. Normally it is very difficult to catch up on a business opportunity if we miss the bus initially. Even more so, when the next door neighbour grabbed that opportunity with both hands, and has a huge monopoly in the wolrd markets.
However, the good news is that electronics manufacturing industry will keep growing at high rates, and demand for consumer electronic goods will keep rising tremendously. So there may be a chance for India to have a small piece of the pie. After that, it will depend on our innovation and our policies, subsidies, vision etc, whether we can give China some competition.
It is possible though. China became the global leader in manufacturing these stuff, because they (at that time) had low labour costs, and assembling especially is labor intensive. Now, with the dramatic rise of the Chinese economy, their wages and living standards have also improved. So maybe we could offer lower rates and compete on the low tier assembling, while Chinese manufacturers move on to higher value stuff.
But for all that to happen, we need to first develop a strong industrial base. There is still a potential opportunity for India, IMO.
