Local assembling of smartphones to generate Rs 31,000 crore by 2019

India would increase its domestic localisation rate from 6.1 per cent in 2016 to 25.8 per cent in 2019 that will bring Rs 31,000 crore in value via local sourcing and assembly of smartphones and accessories, a new report said on Wednesday.

According to the report published jointly by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Enixta Innovations, this is a big opportunity for entrepreneurs and could reduce India's dependence on tech imports.

"There is a high possibility to build local sourcing capabilities for mobile phone components such as battery pack, non-electronic parts, accessories, packaging etc. though the main electronic components will require a longer tenure to be sourced locally," the report said.

India is the second largest smartphone market in the world in terms of number of users, connecting more than 292 million people across the country.

The country is projected to become the single biggest market for global smartphone sales in the next few years and could realise the grand vision of a "$1 trillion digital economy".

"In the next 5-10 years, 25 per cent or 30 per cent of the global economy will be actually determined by the digital economy. He said that the internet economy is the biggest opportunity in India and has the potential to be bigger than the ITeS industry, going forward," said Dr Ajay Kumar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

According to the report, "38 new mobile manufacturing units -- of which half are in Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana -- have been set-up between September 2015 and October 2016, with manufacturing capacity of 20 million units per month, generating close to 40,000 direct jobs and 1.25 lakh indirect employment."

The size of the domestic mobile manufacturing industry in financial year 2019-20 is expected to be Rs 135,000 crore as compared to Rs 94,000 crore in the financial year 2016-17.

"For smartphones, the market size of domestic manufacturing in financial year 2019-20 will be Rs 120,200 crore," the report said.

Two out of every three mobile phones sold in India in 2016 were domestically produced. It is estimated that by 2020, nearly 96 per cent of the mobile phones to be sold in India will be locally manufactured.

--IANS

sku/na/vt