Apple bonanza: iPhones drive India's mobile phone exports to record $15 billion
Apple contributed 65%, or about $10 billion, double the $5 billion of phone exports from India in FY23, when the US major became the first smartphone brand to achieve this feat.
India’s fledgling mobile electronics manufacturing ecosystem has helped create more than 1.2 million jobs, while producing goods worth $50 billion, in FY24, show the data.
“We’ve had great success in mobile phone production,” electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told ET. “Local value addition has increased, as a lot of components have started being manufactured in India. The domestic value addition is increasing steadily, quarter by quarter.”
Vaishnaw, also the minister for telecom and railways, said the pace of growth in manufacturing and exports will accelerate as companies are starting to set up their entire component ecosystem locally, while design inputs are increasing.
Overall, electronics exports jumped nearly 24% to $29.12 billion in FY24, from $23.55 billion in the previous year, provisional data released by the commerce ministry showed. Merchandise exports, however, saw a 3.11% drop in FY24.
Mobile phone exports received a major fillip with the start of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme in FY22. Apple’s three Taiwanese contract manufacturers — Foxconn Hon Hai, Pegatron and Wistron (now owned by Tatas) — as well as Korea’s Samsung and Bharat FIH (a Foxconn company that makes devices other than iPhones) were selected.
India’s Dixon, Lava, Bhagwati, UTL and Optiemus also qualified for the PLI scheme.
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