Growth of mobile phone exports and electronic commercial deficit
June 21, 2025 by Rupeindia
Exports of mobile phones of India are in the news. Donald Trump recently rebuked Apple for exporting iPhones from India to the United States, instead of manufacturing from the United States; In this way he highlighted the recent success of India as a telephone exporter. On March 25, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) announced that
India has progressed significantly in the manufacture of mobile and electronic devices and has become the The second largest mobile manufacturing country in the world… In 2014-15 only 26% of mobile phones sold in India were made in India, the rest were being imported. It is worth mentioning that today 99.2% of all mobile phones That are sold in India are Made in India. He Mobile phones manufacturing value Has increased from ₹ 18.9 billion rupees in fiscal year 2014 to an amazing ₹ 4.22,000 million rupees in fiscal year24… Exports, which were almost non -existent in 2014, have now overcome ₹ 1.29,000 million rupees.
Meity attributes this to the “Make in India” program of the Government. Make In India was launched in 2014, and was carried out in the form of the Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign (self-sufficient India) of 2020 and the incentive-related incentive scheme (PLI) of 2021. The PLI assignment for electronics in 2025-26 is 54 percent higher than in 2024-25. This is helping India overcome its dependence on import, says Meity:
Not long ago, India is largely based on imports, and most electronics are imported. However, things are changing quickly. With the Do in India Initiative, the country is now building its own electronic industry, teaching large investments and promoting local production. As a result, the electronic exports of India are rapidly paddling, also testing some traditional sectors such as textiles.
“Smartphones are now among the main exported products of India,” said Meity Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. Exports of mobile phones from India crossed RS 2 Lakh million rupees in fiscal year 2024-25, of which Apple’s proportion of iPhones was RS 1.5 Lakh Crore and Samsung represented most of the rest. Vaishnaw forecasts a duplication of electronic exports in the next five years. It is reported that smartphone exports to the US. UU. They have increased almost five times by 2024.
The Bank of the India Reserve Annual Report 2024-25 It seems to confirm this story of export success. Exports of electronic goods expanded at 32.5 percent year-on-year in 2024-25, and was the number one taxpayer to export growth. Mobile phones, which contribute to 61.7 percent of the duration of exports of electronic goods 2024-25 (until February 2025), increased by 54.3 percent year-on-year to $ 21.0 billion. Until 2023-24, there was still a (small) negative trade balance in telecommunications instruments, that is, phones, but in 2024-25, despite an additional increase in the importation of telecommunications instruments, the export of this article increased.
The problem, however, is that this seems to be a mere assembly of imported components, with very little addition in India. The ranked races Annual report He also points out that imports of electronic goods expanded at 12.4 percent year-on-year to $ 98.7 billion in 2024-25. Therefore, the trade balance for electronic goods actually Wideno at $ 60.1 billion in 2024-25.
The deficit in electronic products was driven by deficits in electronic components, as well as hardware and computer peripherals. Therefore, the increase in electronic exports is accompanied by a greater increase in electronic imports. This is in the predicted line by Rahul Chauhan, Rohit Lamba and Raghuram Rajan in a 2023 LinkedIn note. Among other things, the tea that subsidies to manufacturers, in the form of PRI payments and tax waials, are perhaps.1
