Phones worth Rs 94K cr to be made in India in FY17: IT minister

Ravi Shankar Prasad said the government has set up dedicated electronic manufacturing clusters in different parts of India

Around Rs 94,000 crore worth of mobile phones are expected to be assembled in India this year, a jump of 74 per cent over the last financial year (FY), government said on Tuesday.

"In terms of value, it (mobile phone manufacturing) has increased by 185 per cent. In the FY 2014-15, mobile phones worth Rs 19,000 crore were made in India. In the FY 2015-16, it increased to Rs 54,000 crore," Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at an event in New Delhi.

The number is likely to touch Rs 94,000 crore in the FY 2016-17, he added.

In volume terms, only six crore units of mobile phones were manufactured in the FY 2014-15, which reached 11 crore units in the FY 2015-16, rising 83 per cent.

Prasad said the government has set up dedicated electronic manufacturing clusters in different parts of India for enhancing electronic manufacturing.

"We offered better tax regime and incentives under MSIPS (Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme) for electronics manufacturing in India," he said.

As a result of these steps, he added, foreign direct investment in electronic manufacturing touched an all-time high of Rs 1.23 lakh crore in 2016 from Rs 11,000 crore in 2014.

India is one of the fastest growing smartphone markets globally. During the second quarter of the FY 2016-17, smartphone market in developed countries grew at 4.3 per cent, while that in developing markets (other than India) was up 9.9 per cent.

The Indian smartphone market grew 15 per cent.

Helped by various government schemes to promote local manufacturing, 25 handset makers have started their production in India.

Also, 37 new mobile phone manufacturing units have already come up, while 37,500 new jobs have been created, Prasad said inaugurating the new manufacturing facility of Chinese phone company LeEco.