Mobiles to make 8.2% of GDP by 2020, from 6.5% now

The contribution of mobile industry to the country's GDP will increase to 8.2 per cent by 2020, a government report said on Thursday. GDP is gross or total domestic product. 

The report attributed the projection to 'The Mobile Economy, India 2016' study of global telecom body GSMA.

The joint government report, released by department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) and department of telecom (DoT), said the mobile industry contributes 6.5 per cent to the GDP currently.

"The mobile industry in India, currently contributing 6.5 per cent ($140 billion) to GDP, and employing over four million people (directly and indirectly), is projected to grow rapidly in the coming years.

Data shared by former telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in December show revenue generated by the telecom sector in 2014-15 was Rs 2,42,900 crore, accounting for 1.94 per cent of GDP.

However, the ratio of revenue size and its contribution in terms of percentage to the GDP varies every year due to variation in the growth of economy, the minister had said.

In 2011-12, the telecom sector accounted for 2.1 per cent of GDP, with revenue of Rs 1,85,930 crore, while in the next year, it stood at Rs 2,07,498 crore (2.07 per cent of GDP).

The DIPP-DoT report said the mobile industry will add 800,000 more jobs.

"In terms of unique mobile phone subscribers, India is expected to cross the 1 billion mark by 2020. India will see an increase in adoption of 4G services with number of 4G connections estimated to grow to 280 million by 2020 from just 3 million in 2015," the report said.

Total Foreign Direct Investment in telecom sector from April 2014 to March 2016 was around USD 4.19 billion.

Investment in telecom operator Vodafone lead the chart with investment of $1,500.79 million followed by Videocon International Electronics with $719.76 million, Telenor $573.15 million, Sistema Shyam Teleservices $451.83 million, Bharti Infratel $240.37 million, Idea Cellular $123.22 million.

Mobile manufacturing units generated 38,300 new jobs in last two years with Taiwanese electronics company Foxconn being top employer with workforce of 8,000.