The Silicon Review ^Asia

The mobile manufacturing industry in India has progressed rapidly in the last five years, mainly because of the “Make in India” scheme launched by the government of India in 2014.

According to ET reports, India had only two mobile manufacturing in 2014 and as of 2019, there are 268 of them under its belt. Currently, 95 percent of the handsets sold in the country are produced locally. Reportedly, India ranks second after China in the field of mobile manufacturing.

Mobile Industry body ICEA conducted a survey and found that 6.7 lakh people are working in the 268 manufacturing units.

The surge in the development of the manufacturing units is mainly because of the schemes introduced by the government of India. The schemes include the Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS). M-SIPS was introduced in 2012 with a mission to help the electronics industry located in non-SEZ (Special Economic Zones) areas by providing it with a capital subsidy of 25 percent and 20 percent to the SEZ zones.

Another scheme known as the Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC) was also introduced in 2012. It encourages entities including the state governments, to deliver good quality infrastructure within a structure. The scheme funds the Brownfield Electronics Manufacturing Clusters and Greenfield Electronics Clusters to carryout projects.

ASSOCHAM-PwC reports predict a rapid growth in the number of smartphone users in India. Currently, there are more than 450 million smartphones users in the country and is likely to reach 850 million within three years.