2 billion and counting: The number of phones ‘made in India’

Smartphone manufacturing in India has come a long way. The likes of Apple, Samsung, Oppo, Nothing, and Xiaomi all have ‘made in India’ products in their portfolio. A report by Counterpoint Research suggests that ‘made’ in India smartphones have crossed 2 billion cumulative units. As per the report, the shipments have registered 23% CAGR.

India, as per the report, has become the second-biggest mobile phone-producing country. The Indian government has introduced schemes and initiatives such as the Phased Manufacturing Program (PMP), Make in India, Production Linked Incentive (PLI) and Atma-Nirbhar Bharat (Self-Reliant India) to increase local manufacturing and value addition, claims the report.
Tarun Pathak, research director, Counterpoint, said “India has come a long way in mobile phone manufacturing. We have seen local manufacturing increase over the years to meet domestic demand. In 2022, more than 98% of shipments in the overall Indian market were ‘Made in India’, compared to just 19% when the current government took over in 2014.”

Government’s push for manufacturing in India

India has also seen increasing local value addition and supply chain development in the country. Local value addition in India currently stands at an average of more than 15%, compared to the low single digits eight years ago, Pathak added.
“Under the ‘Make in India’ initiative, the government introduced the Phased Manufacturing Program and increased import duties on completely built units and some key components over the years to push local manufacturing and value addition. Under the Self-Reliant India scheme, the government introduced the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for 14 sectors, including mobile phone manufacturing,” said research analyst Prachir Singh.
Exports, as per Singh, have also increased because of all this. “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.”