New Delhi, June 9 -- A government notice last week hinting at a possible reversal in India's local sourcing policy for telecom equipment has left local manufacturers fretting about losing ground to global companies like Nokia and Ericsson. Under current rules, telecom equipment manufacturers must source 50-60% of their total bill of materials locally to be in the preferred bidder category. However, in a notice dated 3 June, the Department of Telecommunications said India's limited components ecosystem posed challenges in achieving 50-60% local sourcing for electronic and telecom products. "Recognizing this constraint, the conditions for local content qualification also requires a review," DoT said. Domestic telecom equipment makers warned that any relaxation would undermine India's self-reliance agenda and give an unfair advantage to multinational firms. "There is no need to reduce local content for telecom equipment. None of the domestic design-led players have raised the issue," said Rakesh Bhatnagar, director general of Voice of Indian Commtech Enterprises (VoICE), which counts Tata Group company Tejas Networks, HFCL Ltd, VVDN Technologies Pvt. Ltd, and STL Tech, among its members. "It appears to be a back-door opening being made to support MNCs (multinational companies) and is totally going against the policy announcements being made at the highest level." Just eight months earlier, DoT had said 36 telecom equipment categories had sufficient local capacity and competition, and maintained a 50-65% local value-addition requirement for products such as ethernet switches, unified threat management platforms, 4G mobile systems, optical fiber, and certain Wi-Fi products. Local value addition refers to the percentage of a product's manufacturing cost that comes from components and processes done in India. Manufacturers meeting a minimum threshold-typically 50% or more-are classified as Class-I local suppliers, giving them preference in government tenders. According to Bhatnagar, given the conflicts with neighbours, India should ensure that no software and programmable parts in sectors such as electronics, telecom, space, and nuclear energy come from foreign suppliers. On the other hand, executives at foreign telecom equipment makers say a short-term relaxation is essential considering India's continued dependence on imports for key components such as semiconductors and specialized telecom modules. Lately, companies such as Finland-based Nokia and Sweden's Ericsson have been lobbying the government to relax certain rules so they can participate in government tenders, industry executives said....