India may soon produce locally all the mobile phones it will need instead of importing them, according to an Economic Times report which cited unnamed officials who said the surge in local manufacturing has already reduced the need for imports significantly.
This comes on the backdrop of Apple commencing the manufacturing of iPhone Pro and Pro Max models last week and also Google producing its Pixel 8 here as well. Samsung meanwhile is producing all its devices in India already, including the premium models such as the S24, flip and fold devices.
Even major Chinese companies like Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, Realme, are manufacturing in India alongside local brands such as Lava and Micromax.
99% of mobile phones sold in India in terms of volume are also made locally here, and the remaining 1% will be done by domestic suppliers soon, the report quoted the officials as saying.
The report quoted an industry executive as projecting smartphone import demand being likely to come down to 0.25% by the end of the financial year 2024-25.
In absolute value terms, India’s smartphone imports amounted to just 3% all the smartphones sold here till the financial year 2023-24, according to the report which added that most of these imports were iPhone pro models and Google’s Pixel, which are now manufactured here.
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Its not just about self-sustenance. The report quoted Pankaj Mohindroo, the chairman of India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) as saying, “While we are proud of achieving 100% domestic manufacturing, we won’t stop here. We are gearing up for a $500 billion electronics production target… We aim to clinch global scale by transforming India into a highly cost competitive manufacturing destination for electronics exports.”
What led to the rise in local manufacturing of smartphones?
This rise in local manufacturing came with the first smartphone Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme announced in the financial year 2020-21, which was later ameded and extended to six years after most beneficiaries failed to meet first-year targets except for Samsung due to covid-related disruptions.
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