Government Launches Phased Manufacturing Programme for Mobile Handsets

To promote domestic manufacturing of cellular mobile handsets, the government on Thursday announced a phased manufacturing programme (PMP), which will be rolled out over a period of time, a statement said in New Delhi.

"The focus is to ensure that through appropriate fiscal and financial incentives, indigenous manufacturing of cellular mobile handsets and various sub-assemblies which go into manufacturing of handsets can be promoted over a period of time," the statement said.

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"This initiative will help in building a robust indigenous mobile manufacturing ecosystem in India and we believe that it will incentivize large scale manufacturing. It is our roadmap to ensure an increase in the domestic value addition in manufacturing of mobile handsets.

"It will give a huge impetus to local mobile manufacturing and will help us meet a significant portion of the global handset requirement over a period of time," Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology said.

The PMP has been notified with the objective of substantially increasing the domestic value addition for establishment of a robust cellular mobile handsets manufacturing eco-system in India, it added.

The phase-wise programme covers mechanics, die cut parts, microphone and receiver, keypad and USB cable in the current financial year (2017-18).

It also aims to promote the indigenous manufacturing of populated printed circuit boards, camera modules and connectors in 2018-19; and display assembly, touch panels, vibrator motor and ringer in 2019-20.

The programme will be extended to parts/ sub-parts/ inputs for sub-assemblies as the manufacturing ecosystem evolves over the next few years, the statement said.

"We will not get entrapped by protectionism, but will create deep competencies, both cost and skills, which will create a globally benchmarked workforce and complementary industries intertwined with the global mobile phone and component ecosystem equally encouraging global and domestic enterprises," said Pankaj Mohindroo, National President, Indian Cellular Association (ICA), Chairman - Fast Track Task Force and Trustee - Center for Development of Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (C-ESDM).