Hi Mike,

This is the ground reality in India. Many vendors here offer very low quality pcbs with hand drilling as most are very small scale industries with very small investments in plant and machinery. The few that have big setups charge a bomb relative to these low cost pcb vendors. The reality I perceive is that the Indian buyer has not yet realized that you get what you pay for - literally. Most buyers still want very low cost OEM supplies and the manufacturer ends up buying from these low cost pcb joints. End result, you get very poor pcbs and ultra low reliability. Cut traces, open via holes are a reality.

Typically a low cost vendor charges about INR 1.00 per sq. cm. for small quantities and the high quality guys charge about INR 3.00 per sq. cm. + a NRE(non recurring expense) for tool setup. Most developers need just 2-5 pcbs for prototyping and end up buying from the small supplier as the big guys talk quantities of min 50 upwards. This is the slot the low cost manufacturers are filling.

The online scene too is pretty bad with just one supplier affiliated to Euro Circuits here that offers a pooling service that is reasonably priced.

Importing pcbs is not cheap either. Customs duties make it costlier than the expensive guys. So, it is a bad state of affairs overall.

I hope some other users with an Indian perspective can offer some solutions to the Indian audience here so that developers have a choice for quality pcbs at a low cost.

Regards
Jerson

Disclaimer : This is my 'opinion' and may differ from that of others. I replied in the hope that some bright spark will see a business opportunity here and the situation might change for the better.