Rama Krishna Sangem
India is enjoying benefits of PLI (Productivity Linked Incentives) scheme for about 16 industry sectors. One of them is electronics and mobile phones. After Apple and other major global firms joined the PLI, we are witnessing big growth in exports. PLI has been launched after China clashed with India at Galwan border five years ago. India wants to become a big manufacturing country, on the model of China.
Electronics exports reached the highest-ever mark of $19.1 billion within a seven-month period of any financial year, at the end of October 2024. This is a 24 per cent growth over the $15.4 billion export figure for the sector during the same period in the last financial year, according to the latest government data.
The momentum in electronics exports has been built due to the big push in exports through the smartphone production-linked incentive scheme. For the month of October, electronics exports reached $3.4 billion — a 45 per cent growth over last October, when the sector had clocked $2.4 billion in exports.
Nearly 55 percent of the electronics exports until October 2024 constituted smartphone exports alone. Apple was a major contributor. Exports of iPhones formed 66 percent of the smartphone exports and 37 percent of electronics exports from India until October 2024.
Last year, at the end of October, electronics was ranked the sixth-largest export, behind engineering goods, petroleum products, gems and jewellery, pharmaceuticals, and organic and inorganic chemicals. By October this year, it had jumped three positions to occupy the third slot, only behind engineering goods and petroleum products.
India in top 5 mobile exporters
Electronics has been India’s fastest-growing export, not just on a monthly basis but also cumulatively among India’s top five exports for the seven-month period, according to the Department of Commerce. It is not only increasing its position in India’s top five exports but also narrowing the gap between electronics goods and second-ranked petroleum exports.
In the last financial year, electronics exports were less than a third of the petroleum exports, which stood at $47 billion in the first seven months. In 2024-25, for the same period, electronics exports have reached nearly half of petroleum exports, which have clocked $40.9 billion thus far.
