IT Secretary S. Krishnan on Wednesday urged the industry not to ignore the design elements of the value chain and said India should leverage its strengths and aim for “Indian-designed and -developed” mobile phones. Speaking at a Broadband India Forum (BIF) event, Krishnan also said India should position itself as a competitive destination where players can manufacture for the domestic market as well as for exports.
Indian-made mobile phones in terms of volume have reached a “steady state”, when considered in the context of the overall size of the domestic market and the expected average lifespan of handsets (with a three-year replacement cycle), he said.
To optimise production capabilities going forward, players will also have to tap export markets, he added. Encouraging players to think of “Indian-designed and developed” mobile phones, Krishnan said leveraging the strengths of both design and manufacturing capabilities would lead to greater value creation in the country.
The big question of what the design of the future will be is something that India and other countries can answer, he said.
“Given the kind of design strengths we have and the kind of capabilities we have… the design element is something that cannot be ignored and should be a major focus for the mobile phone industry,” he said. He noted that the electronics manufacturing sector has grown to about $115 billion, with mobile phones being the fastest growing segment.
“It accounts for about 45 per cent of the sector. The total mobile phone manufacturing currently stands at around Rs 4.2 trillion or about $52.5 billion… so it is a significant part of what the overall electronics sector represents in the country today,” he said.
Continuing India’s push to become the world’s second-largest mobile phone manufacturer, with global players like Samsung, Apple , Google BIF, which manufactures its next-generation smartphones in India, on Wednesday launched a report titled ‘India’s Mobile Manufacturing Ecosystem: Challenges and Opportunities’.
“The value of mobile phone manufacturing in India has increased to Rs 4.1 lakh crore in India over the last 10 years due to strategic government policy measures such as Product Linked Initiative (PLI) and Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP).
“This report traces this journey through an empirical study that investigates issues such as the impact of tariff and customs rates, India’s integration into global value chains (GVCs), challenges related to ease of doing business (EoDB) and opportunities for women’s participation in the workforce and ways to reduce the gender gap and increase gender diversity,” BIF said in a statement.
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