According to data estimates made by the industry body, India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), the government’s Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, which has encouraged local assembling of smartphones in India, has boosted mobile phone exports from the country. has been promoted.
The industry body, which counts Apple and Foxconn among its members, said India exported mobile phones worth $3.16 billion (₹24,000 crore) in FY21, but the figure rose to $5.5 billion (₹24,000 crore) in FY22. ₹42000 crores). This marks an increase of over 75% in total mobile phone exports from India, which can be attributed to the proposed PLI scheme to attract mobile phone manufacturers to India.
14 companies approved to avail PLI scheme
A total of 14 companies have been approved to take advantage of the Smartphone PLI scheme, which was announced in April 2020 with a total profit outlay of ₹40951 crore (approximately $5.36 billion). However, in the first year, the Covid-19 pandemic hit production as factories were closed due to the lockdown. In June 2021, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) said the deadline for meeting production targets has been extended by one year, counting FY21 as year zero.
ICEA says that by FY26, India’s selected mobile phone makers under the scheme are tipped to reach a cumulative mobile phone production of ₹10.5 lakh crore – 60% of which will be for exports.
ICEA’s projection comes at a time when several smartphone original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have asked India to export the devices to the rest of the world. Earlier this month at Lenovo Tech World India 2022, Lenovo Asia-Pacific president Amar Babu said Motorola-branded phones made from the company’s assembly plant in Noida, Uttar Pradesh are already being exported to “select markets”. Were.
Earlier this month, a Bloomberg report said that Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, all of which are among the top-5 smartphone brands in India, are looking at the possibility of exporting smartphones from India to international markets. While Xiaomi is in talks with Dixon to make its phones in India for global markets, Oppo and Vivo – both owned by Chinese tech conglomerate BBK Electronics – are in talks with Indian company Lava.
₹76000 crore scheme to attract semiconductor manufacturing in the country
However, India is still dependent on other countries for key components such as semiconductor supplies as well as raw materials required in the smartphone manufacturing process. While China still holds a strong position in this regard, the Indian government earlier this year also launched a ₹76000 crore scheme to attract semiconductor manufacturing to the country.
ICEA claims that mobile phones being exported from India are no longer reserved for surplus markets by OEMs, but are being shipped “to some of the most competitive and advanced markets in Europe and developed Asia”. The growth in mobile phone exports has also been tipped by ICEA to drive the growth in total electronics exports from India, which is projected to grow from $10.6 billion in FY21 to around $15 billion in the current fiscal. Is.
