India eyes PLI 2.0 to deepen local value in mobile assembly makeover

With PLI tenure ending, India weighs extension to protect phone-assembly gains while chip imports hit new highs

Jan 28, 2026, 11:29 IST1 min

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India has evolved from a heavy importer of handsets into a global assembly powerhouse, with mobile phone production rising tenfold over the last decade to Rs 5.5 lakh crore in FY25.

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As production has scaled, the sector’s dominance within the broader electronics industry has grown—fuelled by the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for largescale electronics manufacturing— mobile phones now account for nearly half of India’s total electronics output.

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Driven by this initiative, smartphone exports reached $24.1 billion in FY25, a massive leap from $11 billion just two years before. Imports have simultaneously dropped.

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Most of India's smartphone exports are headed to the United States which makes up about 72 percent of India's total export pie. Another 11 percent is headed towards UAE with European countries like UK, Italy and Netherlands accounting for 1-2 percent of India's smartphone exports each.

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As the trade landscape shifts, India has emerged as the third-largest smartphone exporter globally, trailing only China and Hong Kong.

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In just three years, Tamil Nadu has flipped the scales and emerged as the leading state for smartphone exports. The state accounts for about half of all smartphone exports in 2025 up from 22 percent in 2022. Uttar Pradesh has lost the top spot as phone manufacturing in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka picked up.

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Even as assembly scales, India’s reliance on imported silicon chips—the most expensive and technologically complex component of any smartphone—continues to grow. Semiconductor chip imports have climbed to $24.7 billion in 2024-25, accounting for 67 percent of all electronics imports.

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India eyes PLI 2.0 to deepen local value in mobile assembly makeover

With PLI tenure ending, India weighs extension to protect phone-assembly gains while chip imports hit new highs

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