Vaishnaw Says India Is Moving Past Phone Assembly
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Make in India in 2014. The programme set out to raise domestic manufacturing. Twelve years on, Union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has sketched the next stage for mobile production. He says the push now covers components, battery cells, and battery materials.
Vaishnaw posted the update on X on Friday. He argued that India is climbing the supply chain. A smartphone uses hundreds of parts. According to him, more of those parts, sub-parts, and materials now come from Indian plants. That marks a shift from assembly toward a broader component base.
Government figures back the scale of the assembly boom. Mobile production rose from Rs. 18,000 crore in 2014–15 to Rs. 5.45 lakh crore in 2024–25. Make in India and the Production Linked Incentive scheme drove that jump. India now aims to make more than 330 million phones a year.
Batteries are the next focus. The minister said India is already making handset battery cells. He also said domestic firms are producing the materials inside those cells. In his account, each layer of a lithium-ion cell is now part of the local chain.
He named several inputs. Synthetic graphite, used in anodes, will be made in India. Electrolyte liquids are also in the plan. Acetylene black, a conductive battery material, will join that list.
The local list does not stop at phones and cells. Vaishnaw said cameras, camera modules, displays, speakers, coils, PCBs, and connectors are also being made in the country.
The remarks follow a larger policy step. Two months ago, the Union Cabinet approved the Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme. The programme has a budget of Rs. 62,500 crore. It runs for five years, through 2030–31. Incentives will depend on eligible domestic sales and will range from 2.25 percent to 5 percent.
The minister’s message is simple. India wants more than finished phones. It wants the parts and materials that sit underneath them.