The India government announced a phased manufacturing program (PMP), which will be rolled out over a period of time to promote domestic manufacturing of cellular mobile handsets in the country.

The government aims to promote local manufacturing of mobile handsets and various sub-assemblies which go into manufacturing of handsets through appropriate fiscal and financial incentives.

This initiative will help in building a robust indigenous mobile manufacturing ecosystem in India. The development will incentivize large scale manufacturing of phones in India. “It is our roadmap to ensure an increase in the domestic value addition in manufacturing of mobile handsets,” said India government in a statement.

“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,” said Aruna Sundararajan, secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology.

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.

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

It 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 program will be extended to parts/ sub-parts/ inputs for sub-assemblies as the manufacturing ecosystem evolves over the next few years.

“We will not get entrapped by protectionism, but will create competencies, both cost and skills, which will create a globally bench-marked workforce and complementary industries intertwined with the mobile phone and component ecosystem encouraging global and domestic enterprises,” said Pankaj Mohindroo, national president, Indian Cellular Association (ICA).

IANS