India world’s second largest cellphone producer, at Rs 4.1tn in FY24

At the end of the decade 2014-2024, India now stands as the world’s second largest producer of mobile phones. Describing the growth of mobile phone production during this ten-year period as an “unmatched success story in India’s manufacturing sector”, industry association ICEA said that the sector has transitioned from being 78% import dependent in 2014 to 97% self-sufficiency currently. Only 3% of the total mobile phones sold in India are now imported. The future, according to the industry body, would be export growth-led.

The industry had set itself a target of INR 20,00,000 crores over this ten-year period. It finished the decade at INR 19,45,100 crore cumulative production. In terms of volume, India produced 2.45 billion units of mobile phones during this ten-year period, against a goal of 2.5 billion units, according to ICEA.

Mobile phone production also surged from INR 18,900 crores in 2014-15 to an estimated INR 4,10,000 crores in FY24, registering an increase of 2000%.

In 2014-15, mobile phone exports from India were a mere Rs.1,556 crores. The industry expects to end FY24 with an estimated export of Rs.1,20,000 crores. This would mean a 7500% increase in exports over a decade.

Cumulative exports of mobile phones during the period 2014-24 reached a total estimate of INR 3,22,048 crores – a new era in India’s exports. Driven by this export growth, mobile phones have now become India’s 5th largest export as an individual commodity.

In absence of such self-sufficiency, and if India had remained import dependent to the levels it was in 2014, the import bill on account of mobile phone imports alone during the ten-year period would have been INR 14,34,045 crore.

“It is believed that the doubling of India’s GDP from the current $3.7 trillion to $7 trillion by 2030 will be led by growth in the digital sector and trade. In both these areas, electronics manufacturing led by mobile production will play a critical role”, said Pankaj Mohindroo, Chairman, ICEA. “As a next step, we have to ensure that we can shift electronics GVCs to India to create large scale manufacturing, jobs and increase domestic value addition. This, in turn, requires unprecedented competitiveness and factories that can operate at scale of the kind that has never been witnessed in India”, he added.

This exponential growth in production, exports and self-sufficiency stems from a conducive policy environment, and a close working relationship between industry and key government ministries such as MeitY, DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Finance, NITI Aayog and the Prime Minister’s Office. Initiatives such as PMP announced in 2017 and PLI announced in 2020 have been critical in this leap to help transform India from an import-dependent nation to an economy which will export 30% of its total mobile production in the current financial.

CT Bureau