Archive · 18 Jun 2025
India's Mobile Phone Industry: Growth, Challenges, and Policy
India's mobile phone industry has grown a lot, making it a big player in the world.
From 2015 to 2025 the value of phones produced increased dramatically.
But, India still imports most of the parts needed for phones.
Even though the government has tried to help local companies by increasing tariffs to encourage local companies to make parts, it hasn't worked as well.
This has made it difficult to integrate into the global supply chain because companies must pay more tariffs than in other countries.
The government is now trying to encourage local companies to make more parts to solve this problem.
India's mobile phone industry experienced significant growth, reaching the fourth position in exports.
The industry's production value increased from $3 billion to $50 billion between 2015 and 2025.
Despite growth, the industry faces challenges with low domestic value addition.
Dependence on imported components hinders localisation of sub-assemblies.
Higher tariffs on components have proven counterproductive to fostering localisation.
- Who
- The Indian government, mobile phone manufacturers, and component suppliers.
- What
- The growth of the Indian mobile phone industry, its challenges with domestic value addition, and the impact of government policies.
- When
- Significant growth from 2015 to 2025; recent policy changes.
- Where
- India, with comparisons to other countries like Vietnam and China.
- Why
- To boost manufacturing, attract foreign investment, and increase exports, while aiming to increase local value addition.
Critics
Supporters
Tariff impact
Critics
High tariffs on components hinder the integration of the mobile phone industry into the global supply chain.
Supporters
Higher tariff protection would foster localization.
- Production Value (2015-2025)
- $3 billion to $50 billion
- Export Rank (2015)
- 34th
- Export Rank (2025)
- 4th
- Main challenge
- Low Domestic Value Addition
- Tariff on Components (India)
- 6.2%
- Tariff on Components (Vietnam)
- 0.7%