India now a mobile phone exporter, thanks to Make-in-India

India was producing merely 6 crore mobile phones in 2014-15 which rose to 31 crore in 2021-22. The country's mobile manufacturing capability went up only after the Modi government came to power in 2014.

New Delhi, Dec 22: The latest data released by NITI Aayog shows that India has become a global giant in the mobile manufacturing sector and not just meeting the humongous domestic requirement but also exporting in huge quantities. Nevertheless, during the current year up to November 2022, the nation has exported mobile phones worth Rs 40,000 crore.

The pace and scale could be gauged from the fact that these numbers are more than double from the numbers for the same period last year, i.e. 2021. According to the Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity), mobile phone manufacturing in India grew 14 times in the last 8 years. As per reports, India is all set to produce mobile devices worth around Rs 4.5 trillion in the next two years.

Make-in-India made it possible

India was nowhere in the mobile manufacturing sector during the UPA government. In fact, the nation's mobile manufacturing capabilities have gone up only after the Modi government came to power in 2014. India was producing merely 6 crore phones in 2014-15 which has now gone up to 31 crore in 2021-22.

Most of the trade deficit with China is because India imports a lot of electronic items from them. However, a lot of things changed with the regime change in 2014, especially after the present government started its flagship project 'Make-in-India'.

The government not just promoted the Make-in-India mission on a war-footing but also brought in the production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes. The scheme not only helped large-scale electronics manufacturing units under Meity, but at the same time promoted India made products on various scales and at various platforms.

This and with other initiatives, India has made rapid advances and today it stands one of the largest mobile manufacturing hubs in the world. For instance, 16 companies that received the benefits from the PLI scheme included 10 mobile phone manufacturers and 6 electronic component manufacturers. With such moves India's mobile manufacturing competence has gone significantly up.

Sectoral self-reliance

Needless to say that the Modi government has been quite proactive in promoting mobile manufacturing in the country, especially since it has been in the loggerheads with China. Border skirmishes are regular and in such a situation, India just cannot rely on the overambitious neighbour and must reduce its imports. With India becoming a major mobile manufacturer, dependency on China reduced to 60% from 64% in the last fiscal.