India dethrones Vietnam to become second largest mobile producer in the world

India, which has been focusing on mobile production and export in the country, has become the second largest mobile producer in the world in 2017. The country has replaced Vietnam from the second spot, while neighbouring China is only ahead in the race.

The data produced by Indian Cellular Association (ICA) with Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, says that the annual production of mobile phones in India increased from 3 million units in 2014 to 11 million units in 2017.

ICA National President Pankaj Mohindroo said in a letter to both the Union Ministers on March 28, which referred to data available from market research firm IHS, China National Bureau of Statistics and Vietnam General Statistics Office.

Importantly, imports of the mobile devices in the country also reduced to less than half in 2017-18. Moreover, the fast track task Force (FTTF), a body under Ministry of Electronics and IT, has set the target to achieve around 500 million mobile phone production in India by 2019, with a value estimated to be around $46 billion.

The FTTF, which has members from industry and government, also aims to create 1.5 million direct and indirect jobs by 2019.

According to a data research firm Counterpoint, India has witnessed a significant sales growth of over 74 per cent in 2017, up from 70 per cent in 2016, of mobile phones manufactured in the country. The number was just 19 per cent during the financial year 2014.

Earlier this year, Ravi Shankar Prasad had said that the government is committed for manufacturing India. The global companies have already opened their manufacturing units in India and hope more companies to come.

Digital India -- a part of government's Make in India initiative also witnessed a huge push as finance ministry has doubled the fund allocation to Rs 3,073 crore in 2018 budget to boost it.

With companies like Apple, Xiaomi and Jio, which have been manufacturing a large pie of their total production in India, the aforementioned target set by the government seems to be achievable in the given time frame.

The development was reported by ET via PTI.