India now has 268 mobile handset and component manufacturing units, 6.7 lakh jobs created: ICEA

As per the detailed physical survey conducted by ICEA, the Delhi-NCR region has about 30 mobile handset manufacturing units, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 27, Haryana with 15, Maharashtra 14 and Uttrakhand 9. Delhi-NCR tops the ranking with 18 battery pack factories, followed by UP with 14, Haryana with 13, Himachal Pradesh with 7 and Maharashtra with 4. The survey further found that UP has about 39 factories dedicated to chargers/adapters, followed by Delhi with 24, Haryana with 18, Maharashtra with 12 and Uttrakhand with 10.

The growing mobile manufacturing activity has saved the country an estimated Rs 3 lakh crore in foreign exchange in lieu of import substitution and created and domestic value addition, he further added. The mobile handset and component manufacturing ecosystem is growing in India. In 2017-18, an estimated 225 million handsets were assembled/manufactured in India.

India recently replaced Vietnam to become second largest producer of mobile phones in the world. The India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) expects the total number of mobile handset and component manufacturing units will increase to 1,800 and generate 50 lakh jobs by 2025.

While Mohindroo is optimistic about the growth of mobile handset and components manufacturing in India, he said there are still a number of challenges that need to be addressed. “The industry faces serious challenges in terms of lack of a competitive corporate tax regime, lack of ready to move infrastructural facilities to start production activity from the word ‘GO’ etc, the Government must undertake expeditious measures to address these pressing challenges through suitable regulatory/ incentivisation interventions.”