The Centre’s efforts at making India a hub for electronics manufacturing seem to be paying off in the mobile handset segment.
According to data compiled by the Indian Cellular Association (ICA), the industry body representing mobile phone brands, handset manufacturing in 2015-16 rose a robust 185 per cent in value terms to ₹54,000 crore from ₹19,000 crore in 2014-15. ICA estimates that manufacturing activity will touch ₹94,000 crore this fiscal year.
As many as 25 entities are setting up phone assemblies employing over 37,000 people. These factories are coming up across 35 locations in 10 States, and are capable of producing 20 million handsets a month, according to ICA data.
Handset makers such as Micromax, Lava and Intex are already sourcing most of their models sold in the market from their respective factories.
Rajesh Agarwal, Co-Founder, Micromax Informatics. expressed that about 70-80 per cent of Micromaz’s smartphones, and almost all of their consumer electronics, are being manufactured locally. He firmly believes that local manufacturing will help them enhance the design, and push research and development to suit domestic requirements.
Not just Indian brands, even Chinese players such as Vivo and Xiaomi have a local manufacturing strategy.
Of the 220 million mobile phones estimated to have been sold in India in 2015-16, 110 million had some form of manufacturing in Indian locations.
By Baishakhi Dutta
