The telecom equipment manufacturing sector has demonstrated exceptional growth, with total sales exceeding Rs 50,000 crore by Production linked Incentive (PLI) companies.

Sales of Telecom & Networking Products by PLI beneficiary companies in FY 2023-24 has increased by 370 per cent vis-a-vis Base Year (FY 2019-20), the latest data from the Ministry of Communications said.

Within three years of the Telecom PLI scheme, the scheme has attracted an investment of Rs 3,400 crore, the telecom equipment production has exceeded the milestone of Rs 50,000 crore with exports totalling approximately Rs 10,500 crore, creating more than 17,800 direct jobs and many more indirect jobs, it added.

The Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Large Scale Electronic Manufacturing of Electronics covers the manufacture of mobile phones and its components.

As a result of this PLI scheme, both the production and export of mobile phones from India has picked up greatly. India from being a large importer of mobile phones in 2014-15, when only 5.8 crore units were produced in the country, while 21 crore units were imported, in 2023-24, 33 crore units were produced in India and only 0.3 crore units were imported and close to 5 crore units were exported.

The value of exports of mobile phones has gone up to Rs 1,28,982 crore in 2023-24 from Rs 1,556 crore in 2014-15 and just Rs 1,367 crore in 2017-18. Import of mobile phones was valued at Rs 48,609 crore in 2014-15 and has dropped to just Rs 7,665 crore in 2023-24.

The ministry also highlighted that as a result of the PLI Scheme for Telecom and Networking Products and other related initiatives run by both DoT & MeitY, the gap between telecom imports and exports has reduced significantly with the total value of goods (both telecom equipment and mobiles put together) exported is over Rs 1.49 lakh crore as against imports of over Rs 1.53 lakh crore in FY 23-24.

Over the last five years, the trade deficit in telecom (both telecom equipment and mobiles put together) has reduced to Rs 4,000 crore from Rs 68,000 crore and both the PLI Schemes have started to make Indian manufacturers globally competitive.