Phased manufacturing policy on handsets risks draining forex reserves

The import bill of components rose to Rs 99,816 crore on domestic mobile handset sales of $24.20 billion (Rs 162,309 crore)

The government’s most-touted phased manufacturing programme (PMP) for mobile handsets has led to an increase in the value of component imports.
 
This is slated to get worse and may have an adverse impact on the country’s foreign exchange reserves (as a result of a higher outflow). 
 
According to industry estimates based on presentations to the NITI Aayog, which has been tasked to find a roadmap to make India into a mobile handset manufacturing hub, in 2018-19 there was an average value addition of 18 per cent in local mobile handset manufacturing.
 
But the import bill of components