India’s electronics sector is currently employing about 1.2 million people all over the country, as 325 to 330 million mobile phones are being manufactured every year, the government said on Thursday.

The country has witnessed rapid growth in electronics manufacturing – from Rs 1.9 lakh crore in 2014-15 to Rs 9.52 lakh crore in production in 2023-24 (with an annual compounded growth rate of 17.4 per cent) and 22.7 per cent export growth.

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On the 10th anniversary of the ‘Make in India’ initiative, S. Krishnan, Secretary, IT Ministry, emphasised that electronics has emerged as one of the most impactful sectors.

“Exports from India in the electronics manufacturing sector have also risen substantially from about Rs 38,263 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 2.41 lakh crore at the CAGR of 22.7 per cent. This is also significantly faster than the growth of other export sectors,” he said.

In 2014-15, only 26 per cent of the mobile phones which were being sold in the country were made in India and the rest were being imported.

Today, 99.2 per cent of all mobile phones which are sold in India are made in India.

“We are manufacturing between 325 to 330 million mobile phones a year in India and on average there are about a billion mobile phones in use in India. We have virtually saturated the domestic market and that’s why you see that there’s a substantial uptick in the exports of mobile phones,” Krishnan informed.

The mobile phone export was about Rs 1.2 lakh crore in 2023-24 and the exports have increased 77 times from what it was in 2014-15. In 2014-15, mobile phones export was worth about Rs 1,566 crore which has reached around Rs 1,20,000 crore now.

Speaking on the PLI scheme for mobile sector, the Secretary said we have exceeded our overall production target, and have reached Rs 6.61 lakh crore as the total value of production and investment of Rs 9,100 crore, which is again well above the investment.

“The total employment achieved has been 1,22,613, which again is as per the original target of the scheme. So this has been one of the big stories in the Make in India, and today. the electronic sector employs close to about 1.2 million people all over the country,” said Krishnan.

Setting up a semiconductor manufacturing base in the country has been the other big part of ‘Make in India.’

With the launch of the India Semiconductor Mission and the five major projects which have been approved, starting with Micron, the two projects by Tata Electronics, the one project by CG Power, and the last project by Keynes, a real manufacturing base of semiconductors is being established in the country.