India aims to move up value chain in mobile phone manufacturing

Bangalore

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi has struggled in his campaign to bring more manufacturing jobs to India. But now, he has a solid incentive for technology companies to build more plants in his country: the fastest-growing smartphone market in the world.

India currently contributes only about 6 per cent of the value of phones sold in the country through local manufacturing or assembly, but that contribution could rise to more than 30 per cent in the next five years, according to a joint study by Counterpoint Research and India's leading management school, the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore. The government should use the surging domestic demand to draw manufacturers that will make higher-value components, such as batteries, cameras and semiconductors, the study said.