In 2020 when the Manufacturing Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme was launched as a cornerstone of the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ push, little did anybody know that smartphones would emerge because the poster boy of its success. Cell phones meeting and manufacturing is arguably the most important success story of the PLI scheme and now India is trying to take the subsequent huge leap on this area.With the launch of the Rs 62,500 crore Cellular Cellphone Manufacturing Scheme (MPMS), India is eyeing its homegrown smartphone manufacturers – with each facet from design, R&D to elements and manufacturing happening within the nation. In truth, Electronics minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has mentioned that by mid-2027, India expects its first robust indigenous cellular model.Bloomberg estimates from earlier this yr counsel that Apple’s contract producers now account for roughly three-fourths of India’s smartphone exports, taking part in a significant function within the nation’s emergence as one of many world’s fastest-growing hubs for handset exports.Apple plans to ship most iPhones sure for the US from India by the top of the yr, additional strengthening India’s place because the main supply of smartphones offered within the US.
India’s Rs 62,500 crore cell phone push
For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this shift represents a pure subsequent stage for his authorities’s Make in India programme, and that is the place the brand new scheme holds promise.The main focus is now transferring past import substitution and home meeting in direction of a deeper integration with international provide chains, with the broader intention of positioning India as a producing hub able to competing with China.Will the MPMS push India to construct its personal international smartphone manufacturers like Apple, Samsung and others? We discover the potential of the brand new scheme:
What PLI scheme has achieved
Numbers have a telling story: Smartphones turned India’s high exported particular person commodity in FY 2025-26 overtaking even petroleum, gems and jewelry. They didn’t even function within the high 100 exported commodities in 2014.India is now the world’s second-largest cell phone producer by quantity, with 99.2% of telephones used domestically made in India.Consultants see India’s PLI journey as transformational in establishing India as a worldwide cell phone manufacturing hub.Prachir Singh, Senior Analysis Analyst, Counterpoint Analysis says that the PLI scheme has been instrumental in establishing India as a significant international hub for mobile-phone manufacturing and meeting.“Whereas India was already adept at meeting earlier than, the PLI scheme helped in growing manufacturing, not only for the native market however for high-value exports,” he tells TOI.Because of the PLI, India noticed the rise of native gamers like Dixon, which was the highest producer in 2025 and was a recipient of the PLI advantages within the native producers class.
What PLI scheme achieved for cellphones manufacturing
However, it helped in important export quantity progress, at 27% CAGR between 2021-2025 pushed by international giants Apple, Samsung and Motorola.On the manufacturing finish, it was led by beneficiaries of the PLI scheme which included Foxconn, TATA, Samsung and Dixon.What PLI achieved was to speed up massive scale electronics manufacturing investments and exports, serving to India emerge because the world’s second-largest cell phone producer by quantity.In 2014-15, solely 26% of cellphones offered in India have been manufactured domestically; by December 2024, that determine had risen to 99.2%. The manufacturing ecosystem has additionally expanded from simply 2 cell phone manufacturing items in 2014 to greater than 300 items as we speak.“The influence is especially evident within the post-PLI interval. Cell phone manufacturing in India greater than doubled from Rs 2.14 lakh crore in FY 2019-20 to Rs 5.5 lakh crore in FY 2024-25, reflecting the size achieved by sustained investments and integration with international provide chains,” notes Saurabh Agarwal, Accomplice, EY India.Throughout the identical interval, India transitioned from primarily serving home demand to changing into a significant export hub, with cell phone exports growing from Rs 1,566 crore in FY 2014-15 to Rs 1.2 lakh crore in FY 2023-24 and additional to roughly Rs 2 lakh crore in FY 2024-25, making smartphones India’s largest export product class.
What has been introduced now
The Cellular Cellphone Manufacturing Scheme is now the subsequent step in India’s dream.The Rs 62,500 crore outlay over a interval of 5 years by FY 2030-31 goals to help the event of Indian-owned manufacturers, home patents, product design and R&D.The scheme guarantees help for scaling up of cell phone manufacturing, with a selected give attention to home worth addition, additional strengthening of provide chains, and in the end bettering India’s international competitiveness.As a part of the scheme, cell phone producers will get incentives starting from 2.25% to five% on eligible gross sales. There shall be a further incentive for sourcing elements from home producers. One more 3% incentive shall be linked to product design and R&D.The federal government has estimated that the scheme will assist take the cumulative cell phone manufacturing to round Rs 39 lakh crore throughout its 5 yr tenure.
What’s Cellular Cellphone Manufacturing Scheme?
Will this be the subsequent transformative step?
A number of issues are coming collectively to assist the brand new dream, however execution will maintain the important thing to the second part of success.MPMS comes at a time when investments below the Electronics Parts Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) are starting to materialise.In line with Saurabh Agarwal of EY India, most of the elements and sub-assemblies lined below ECMS are additionally recognized below MPMS for localisation-linked incentives.This creates a strong coverage convergence: whereas ECMS is supporting the creation of home manufacturing capability for elements, MPMS is creating a big and predictable marketplace for these merchandise by localisation necessities and incentives.“In that sense, MPMS will not be merely a cell phone manufacturing scheme; it is usually a demand-generation mechanism that may speed up the commercialisation of investments being made below ECMS,” he says.Sohrab Bararia, Accomplice and Chief, Incentives Advisory, Grant Thornton Bharat cautions that execution of the brand new scheme is vital to its success.“The larger problem now’s transferring up the worth chain and capturing a higher share of producing, design, and know-how growth,” he tells TOI.What makes MPMS completely different is its give attention to home sourcing, in-house R&D, and functionality constructing. India nonetheless depends on imports for a number of essential elements, supplies, and applied sciences, which limits worth addition throughout the nation.“If the scheme succeeds in strengthening part manufacturing, encouraging innovation, and constructing native capabilities alongside meeting, it might assist India evolve from an assembler of electronics to a real electronics powerhouse,” he says.Prachir Singh of Counterpoint Analysis believes that transferring from a producing hub to a worldwide electronics powerhouse would require a deeper transformation.“India has made substantial progress in closing meeting and exports, however wants to extend home worth addition, localise elements, develop semiconductor and part ecosystems, construct stronger R&D and product-design capabilities,” he says.The Rs 62,500 crore structure below the MPMS is more likely to be a giant enabler on this transformation, significantly because it hyperlinks incentives to home sourcing of key elements.
From Made in India to Made by India
Can India make its personal Apple, Samsung?
So the massive query is, will India be capable of create its personal world-class cell phone model like Apple, Samsung, and even Xiaomi?The duty is less complicated mentioned than carried out, however scope stays, and it received’t occur in a single day, really feel consultants.Sohrab Bararia of Grant Thornton Bharat tells TOI, “Constructing a worldwide model is about rather more than incentives. It takes years of innovation, product growth, buyer belief, advertising, and a powerful ecosystem across the model.”What MPMS does is create a few of the constructing blocks wanted for that journey. Its give attention to home sourcing, in-house R&D, and functionality constructing is a step in the fitting route. Over time, this may also help Indian corporations develop their very own merchandise, applied sciences, and mental property somewhat than simply assemble gadgets.“Finally, success will rely on how the market responds. Customers purchase manufacturers like Apple and Samsung not simply due to the place they’re manufactured, however due to the innovation, high quality, and buyer expertise they provide,” he says.“If Indian manufacturers can ship on these features whereas leveraging the help supplied below MPMS, the scheme might effectively be step one in direction of creating globally recognised Indian electronics champions,” he provides.Prachir Singh additionally thinks that creating an Indian Xiaomi, Samsung or Apple shall be difficult. MPMS will help the manufacturing ecosystem, however constructing globally aggressive Indian manufacturers will in the end rely on private-sector execution, he says.Saurabh Agarwal of India is extra assured that the brand new scheme considerably improves India’s possibilities of creating globally aggressive cell phone manufacturers, though it ought to be considered as a long-term alternative somewhat than a direct consequence.“The largest limitation of earlier incentive programmes was that they have been primarily centered on scaling manufacturing. MPMS is completely different as a result of it explicitly helps Indian manufacturers, design, R&D and mental property creation,” he tells TOI.That is vital as a result of international leaders corresponding to Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi have been constructed not solely by manufacturing scale, however by sustained funding in know-how, product growth, brand-building and possession of IP.“MPMS is the primary coverage framework that straight targets these worth drivers. India additionally enters this part from a place of appreciable energy. The nation has already constructed a world-class manufacturing ecosystem. A big home market, deep engineering expertise, a mature digital ecosystem and a rising electronics provide chain present most of the constructing blocks that profitable international know-how manufacturers require,” he provides.What makes the chance significantly compelling is that India is now not attempting to create home manufacturers within the absence of a producing ecosystem. In contrast to a decade in the past, Indian corporations can now leverage a longtime provider base, large-scale manufacturing capabilities and entry to international markets. MPMS seeks to construct on this basis by encouraging Indian companies to maneuver past meeting and spend money on product possession, know-how and innovation.So, will the scheme create the subsequent Apple or Samsung in a single day? Most likely not. However it could create the situations for the emergence of worldwide recognised Indian manufacturers over the subsequent decade, consultants say.
