Imports of mobiles have reduced as domestic manufacturing has increased to 225 million mobile phones amounting to Rs 1,32,000 crore a year
Josh Foulger, Foxconn chief informed that India’s mobile phones imports in FY2017-18 declined to half of the previous imports. The imports of completely built-in units also witnessed a fall from 78 to 18 per cent. The Foxconn International Holding, India head cited the rising locally produced mobiles as the reason behind the drop in imports.
Mobile manufacturing in India
While addressing the Advantage India Summit, which solely focuses on mobile manufacturing in India, Foulger gave an insight of the country’s state in the manufacturing segment. Around 225 million mobile phones are made in India, amounting to Rs 1,32,000 crore a year. He has projected a growth of 52 per cent in smartphone production.
The India Mobile Taskforce, a body monitoring growth of mobile handsets and component manufacturing in India, has estimated a market share of 25 per cent in mobile manufacturing globally. The Department of Electronics and Information Technology appointed agency has also projected around 1.3 million employment opportunities in this segment.
The Phased Manufacturing Programme aims to produce 500 million handsets by 2020 and around 1,400 mobile phone manufacturing units are expected to employ 4,700,000 people in the country by 2025.
Mobile market share
The Foxconn India chief also mentioned that as per second quarter data of 2018, smartphones had a 42 per cent market share, feature phones make up about 32 per cent and 26 per cent market share was occupied by 4G capable feature phones. India has been encouraging manufacturers to produce electronic components alongside assembling mobiles.
The Advantage India Summit, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), aims to provide mobile manufacturing learnings from global leaders. Robert Grobbauer, CII Chairperson for Mobile Technology Conference & Managing Director & COO, AT&S India, considers India as the fastest growing mobile business market in the world. With its huge mobile network, India could boost manufacturing in the country.
Dr Muthukumar, Chairman, CII, said that from just two mobile phone manufacturing units in 2014, the industry has grown to 124 manufacturing units employing 400,000 people.
