Where are these ‘Made in India’ smart phones being manufactured?
Dr Rakesh Varma Ex IAS VR
After a massive campaign by the Narendra Modi government, India seems to have emerged as a hub for electronic manufacturing. The numbers however do not seem to add up.
Indian "nationalism" has spurred a massive growth in the production of high-quality counterfeit electronic goods and this is not sustainable in the long term. The reality is that all the phones produced in India are completely assembled here by importing almost all the parts from various countries mostly from China. While China imports processors from Taiwan to manufacture phones, in India, over 90% of the parts have to be imported.
India’s ‘Make in India’ initiative is a policy with incongruities. Swadeshi products should be made with domestic capital, not foreign money, but this has led to a jump in the ‘ease of doing business’ ranking without real economic growth. The government must realise that industrialisation cannot be kick-started by a series of bills in Parliament and hosting investors’ meetings.
Telecom players say that around 4 million phones are assembled in India on a daily basis and approximately one crore laptops are assembled annually at various hubs across states such as Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. This directly contradicts the official statistics released by DIPP which shows that not even 1 million mobile phones were manufactured in India in FY 16, while 4 million units were imported.
The PLI scheme aims to boost domestic manufacturing and attract large investments in mobile phone manufacturing and electronic components, including assembly, testing, marking and packaging. The scheme also aims to support indigenous research and development capabilities in the electronics sector with a view to increase market share of domestically manufactured mobile handsets. In this way it will be able to create jobs in expanding sectors like mobile phones and electronics.
The Uttar Pradesh Deendayal smart phone tablet scheme is a government initiative in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, to provide low-cost smartphones and tablets to students and teachers. The scheme aims to promote digital education and bridge the digital divide in the state. Under this scheme, the government provides smartphones and tablets at a subsidized rate to students and teachers, with the goal of increasing access to digital educational resources and improving the quality of education. The state government will distribute of tablets and smartphones to 1 crore students in a phased manner.
It is not uncommon for companies to falsely claim that their products are "Made in India" when they are actually imported and only assembled in the country. This is known as "country of origin fraud" and it undermines the "Make in India" initiative, which aims to boost domestic manufacturing and create jobs.
We need to increase awareness about this issue so consumers know what they're buying when they see "Made in India" stickers on goods or hear claims that products are made domestically when they aren't really made here at all!
The truth is that all the phones that have the 'made in India' badge are made here by importing almost all of their parts from various countries, mostly China.
Even China imports some parts to make phones—but that's very minimal. For example, they import processors mostly from Taiwan to manufacture the phones.
In India, however, over 90% of the parts must be imported to make a phone. It is almost impossible to make a phone only on resources from India. Mobile phones have many parts like processors, batteries, screens, etc. There is no company in India which is making processors. Making good screens and batteries are also difficult tasks.
Indian Defense
