India produced 225 mn mobile phones in 2017 worth $20 billion: Report

The strong growth seen between 2014 and 2017 is starting to slow down

| Published: Friday, November 2, 2018, 14:33 [IST]

According to a new report by McKinsey-ICEA, India produced 225 million mobile phones in 2017 worth $20 billion, with exports of around $0.1 billion.

If India extends its ambitions to the export market, it could manufacture around 1,250 million handsets by 2025. This could fire up an industry worth around $230 billion and create more than 47 lakh jobs in the process just from Assembly, Programming, Testing and Packaging (APTP) operations, and PMP sub-assembly operations.

It said around 120 manufacturing units have come up since 2014, driven by the introduction of the Phased Manufacturing Program (PMP) and on the back of strong domestic market demand.

The joint report said total investments made in the mobile handset and components manufacturing space as of now is approximately $1 billion (including fixed and working capital investment).

And the total direct and indirect employment generated based on manufacturing in these 120 manufacturing and assembling units is approximately 4.5 lakh.

India is gradually rebuilding its mobile manufacturing base on the back of supportive policies like PMP and growing domestic market demand, ICEA said. Adding that over the last 18 to 20 months, mobile manufacturing in India has created around 4.5 lakh jobs. India produced 225 million mobile phones in 2017, worth $20 billion.

The ICEA- Report 2018 noted that the Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) intended to turn India into a manufacturing hub is not enough to help the country to become an export manufacturing hub.

"The strong growth seen between 2014 and 2017 is starting to slow down," the joint report added.

"In value terms, the 2017 estimated exports of around $0.1 billion are short of the target for 2019 of $9 billion. Despite some improvement in exports since 2015, India still has a long way to go to become an export hub," said the report.

It also recommended export incentives, labor reforms, and duty differential through PMP among others to increase exports.