India pushes for huge mobile scale

India is weighing a new round of factory subsidies to push its share of global mobile-phone production to 30% to 35% by 2031. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) The plan under discussion, described as “Production Linked Incentive 2.0,” would aim for $110 billion to $130 billion in annual mobile-phone output by fiscal 2031, according to industry talks with India’s electronics ministry reported on April 12. India now accounts for about 15% of global mobile-phone production, with output above $64 billion, the report said. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) The current incentive program helped turn India into the world’s second-largest mobile-phone producer, according to the Press Information Bureau. The government said 99.2% of phones sold in India were made locally by December 2024, up from 26% in 2014-15. (pib.gov.in) Exports are the next target. India’s mobile-phone exports rose to $15.6 billion in 2023-24 from $0.2 billion in 2014-15, and the government said domestic production climbed to 33 crore units in 2023-24 from 5.8 crore units a decade earlier. (pib.gov.in) That export push has been reinforced by Apple’s expansion in India. Apple assembled about $22 billion of iPhones in India in the year through March 2025 and exported 1.5 trillion rupees, or about $17.4 billion, from the country in that period, according to reports citing India’s technology minister. (bloomberg.com) India is also trying to move beyond final assembly into the parts that go inside phones. On March 30, the government approved 29 proposals under its electronics component manufacturing program, with planned investment of 71.04 billion rupees, or about $751 million. (channelnewsasia.com) That matters because India still imports many higher-value parts even as local assembly has surged. The new component approvals cover products used in mobile phones, telecom gear and autos, as New Delhi tries to build a deeper supply chain before its broader electronics target of $500 billion in production by fiscal 2031. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) The first incentive program also drew criticism for creating fewer jobs than some backers expected, even as production and exports beat targets. A recent industry report cited by Devdiscourse said the scheme surpassed investment and output goals but fell short on employment generation. (devdiscourse.com) What happens next is whether New Delhi turns the industry’s pitch into a formal policy. If it does, India will be trying to convert a decade of assembly growth into a larger claim on the global phone business by 2031. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)