In a huge relief to Uttar Pradesh’s (UP) electronics manufacturing industry, Yogi Adityanath government allowed all manufacturing units to continue operations even during weekend lockdowns and night curfews.

Uttar Pradesh has become a hub for manufacturing of mobile phones, televisions and most importantly the component makers, which run continuous processing units with 24-hour shifts. Recently even South Korean technology major Samsung has begun the production of mobile display panels at its factory in UP’s Noida.

“UP has taken an excellent step of permitting industries to operate continuously even in the curfew period,” chairman of India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA) Pankaj Mohindroo told The Economic Times.

“PCBA (printed circuit board assembly) for electronics products are manufactured using SMT (Surface Mount Technology). SMT machines run continuously 24x7 without any breaks. This is mainly because these machines require high startup time, eight to ten hours, if there are breaks in between. Particularly component placement and reflow oven machines need running without any break,” he said.

“However, the only challenge is that since public transport will not be running, companies will have to arrange transport for workers,” he added.

“This is a very appropriate, prudent and sensible decision by the UP government that will keep the wheels of the economy running. The permission will help us avoid any operational inefficiencies and keep up the component supply to critical industries like medical equipment,” said Amrit Manwani, MD at Sahasra, a leading PCBA maker based in Noida.