Mobile production crosses 2 bn units under 'Make in India' initiative: Report

New Delhi, Aug 14

'Make in India' mobile phone shipments crossed the 2-billion cumulative units mark during 2014-2022, registering a 23 per cent Compound annual growth rate (CAGR), latest research showed on Monday.

The huge internal demand, increasing digital literacy and government push are the major reasons for this growth. As a result, India has become the second-biggest mobile phone-producing country, according to 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," said Research Director Tarun Pathak.

"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," he informed.

Many companies are setting up units in the country for manufacturing mobile phones as well as components, leading to growing investments, increasing jobs and overall ecosystem development.

The government now intends to capitalise on its various schemes to make India a ‘semiconductor manufacturing and export hub’.

"Going forward, we may see increasing production, especially for smartphones, as India gears to bridge the urban-rural digital divide and also become a mobile phone exporting powerhouse," Pathak noted.

Under the 'Make in India' initiative, the government introduced the Phased Manufacturing Programme and increased import duties on completely built units and some key components over the years to push local manufacturing and value addition.

The government introduced the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for 14 sectors, including mobile phone manufacturing.

“Due to all this, exports from India have increased. Going forward, the government is focused on making India a semiconductor hub. It has proposed a semiconductor PLI scheme and now is focusing more on infrastructure with a proposed investment of $1.4 trillion,” said senior analyst Prachir Singh.

Buoyed by friendly government policies and PLI scheme, India is set to cross Rs 1,20,000 crore in mobile exports in the current fiscal year (FY24), driven by tech giant Apple, according to the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA).