99% of mobiles used in India are made in India, says Ashwini Vaishnaw

'Have moved up value chain in electronics manufacturing'

India has not only increased the volume of mobile phones and electronics production but also moved up the value chain, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Monday, asserting that the country is now a major exporter of electronic components.

The railways, information technology and telecom minister said the investments in the electronics sector are currently around Rs 20,000-25,000 crore in India and the industry is growing “exponentially”.

“99.2 per cent of mobile phones used in India are made in India…Not only have volumes increased, but India has been climbing up the value chain too. At present, there are multiple components that are manufactured in India,” Vaishnaw told reporters at the Tata Electronics facility in Hosur, Karnataka.

The mobile phone industry alone accounts for employment of two and a half lakh people, he said.

Vaishnaw said India is now a major exporter of electronic components and its exports are only expected to rise in the future.

“We are trying to tap into laptops, PCs, mobile phones, and every segment of electronics production in India,” he said.

According to some media reports, Tata Electronics, part of the Tata Group, is planning to double the size of its existing iPhone-casing unit in Hosur, Karnataka

The expansion is in the backdrop of Tata Group's acquisition of Wistron's iPhone assembly plant in Karnataka's Kolar district, marking its foray into assembling iPhones and also making it India’s first indigenous iPhone maker.

To make India a manufacturing hub, the government extended the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme to 14 sectors in 2021, the largest of which is the smartphone PLI scheme, with an outlay of Rs 40,995 crore.

Under the scheme, the government estimates a total incremental production of Rs 10.05 lakh crore, exports of well over Rs 6.5 lakh crore, and direct and indirect jobs of up to at least 8 lakh by 2026.