Over 99 percent of mobile phones used in India today are manufactured locally, while the mobile manufacturing industry has crossed $44 billion in value, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on November 27.
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Speaking to the press about the progress India has made vis-à-vis electronics manufacturing, the Cabinet minister quipped that some Opposition leaders still think that mobile phones are imported.
“There are some big leaders in the Opposition who still believe that mobile phones are imported. They forget that today 99.2 percent of mobile phones used in India are made in India,” Vaishnaw told reporters at Tata’s iPhone plant in Tamil Nadu’s Hosur.
He further added, “Mobile phone manufacturing has gone from miniscule to $44 billion; today it has crossed $100 billion.”
The union minister highlighted that not only have volumes increased, India has been climbing up the value chain too. At present, there are multiple components that are manufactured in India.
India has set an ambitious goal to produce $300 billion in electronics products by 2025-26, offering generous incentives through its production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes to woo device makers seeking to diversify its manufacturing capabilities beyond China.
Over the past year, Apple has been aggressively ramping up local production of its flagship iPhone devices in India. The Cupertino tech giant reportedly plans to increase production in India to over $40 billion in the next 4-5 years, after crossing the $7 billion production mark in the last fiscal.
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Meanwhile, Google announced recently that it plans to make its Pixel smartphones in India, giving a big boost to the country’s ambitions of becoming a global manufacturing hub. It plans to start local manufacturing with Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, with the first devices expected to roll out in 2024. The company will be working with domestic and international manufacturers to produce these smartphones.
“We have reached in last 9.5 years a level where we can have export led growth in electronics and products. Every employee of this complex industry has contributed,” Vaishnaw remarked today.
“There has been super progress in our semiconductor program… Construction of plant to make chips is going very well. Some famous people who want to criticise the growth of mobile phones in industry forget the employment it generates,” he added.
Mobile phone shipments under the ‘Make in India’ initiative achieved a significant milestone, surpassing 2 billion units in 2022. This was underpinned by an impressive Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 23 percent over 9 years.
The growth can be attributed to several factors, including substantial domestic demand, rising levels of digital literacy and proactive government support. Consequently, India has now secured its position as the world’s second-largest producer of mobile phones, according to a report by Counterpoint Research.
In 2022, more than 98 per cent of shipments in the overall market were ‘Make in India’, compared to just 19 per cent when the current government took over in 2014. Local value addition in India currently stands at an average of more than 15 per cent, compared to the low single digits eight years ago.
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Many companies are establishing manufacturing units within the country to produce both mobile phones and components. This trend is driving substantial investments, creating more job opportunities and fostering the overall development of the ecosystem.
