New Delhi: India has seen an extraordinary surge in mobile phone exports over the past decade, increasing 127 times from a mere ₹0.01 lakh crore in 2014-15 to ₹2 lakh crore in 2024-25, the government informed Parliament on Wednesday.

Officials attributed this remarkable growth to key reforms and policy initiatives introduced under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ missions, which have played a pivotal role in transforming India into a global manufacturing hub for electronics.

Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Jitin Prasada, noted in a written reply to the Lok Sabha that the production of mobile phones had also seen a dramatic 28-fold rise--from ₹0.18 lakh crore in 2014-15 to ₹5.5 lakh crore in 2024–25.

Further highlighting the sector’s growth, he stated that the number of mobile manufacturing units in India has expanded from just two in 2014 to over 300 in 2025--a 150-fold increase.

This boom has significantly reduced India’s dependency on imports, which once met nearly three-quarters of its domestic mobile phone demand. Now, imported phones account for only 0.02% of total sales in the country.

India’s overall electronics production has increased six-fold over the past ten years--from ₹1.9 lakh crore to ₹11.3 lakh crore. Meanwhile, electronics exports have risen eight times, reaching ₹3.3 lakh crore in 2024-25.

The government credits this transformation to several flagship schemes, including:

  • The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for large-scale electronics and IT hardware,
  • The Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC and EMC 2.0),
  • The Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS), and
  • The Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order 2017.

Collectively, these initiatives have generated an estimated 25 lakh direct and indirect jobs across India’s electronics sector.

Maharashtra has emerged as a key contributor to this growth, with 85 supported manufacturing units, two common facility centres, and one electronics manufacturing cluster under the Ministry’s various schemes.

The government also underscored the contributions of its Digital India and Skill India programmes in building a future-ready workforce. In Maharashtra alone, more than 53 lakh individuals have been trained under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA), including nearly 6 lakh from Scheduled Tribes. In addition, initiatives such as FutureSkills PRIME and drone technology training programmes have broadened employment prospects for India’s youth.

– IANS