Noida is major phone manufacturing hub

The pace at which mobile manufacturing activity is growing in the Noida/Greater Noida area owing to the “Make in India” initiative, the region is set to produce about 30% of the estimated one billion mobile phones the country will produce annually by 2025. Approximately 80 mobile manufacturing factories are currently operating in this region, providing an estimated total employment of 50,000 people, according to mobile industry body ICEA. These 80 units produce mobile handsets and components for handsets, such as chargers, adapters, battery packs, etc.

During 2018-19, India saw the production of 290 million units. Most of the production came from the Noida-Greater Noida region. South Korean tech giant Samsung, which opened its biggest mobile factory in Sector 81 last year, is set to double its mobile phone manufacturing capacity in Noida from 68 million to 120 million units a year by 2020.

Chinese smartphone manufacturer OPPO, which is currently manufacturing 50 million smartphones annually at its Kasnabased factory in Greater Noida, aims to double the capacity to 100 million units by next year, said Sumit Walia, VP, OPPO India. Another Chinese player, Vivo, which recently rolled out a new manufacturing facility in Greater Noida as part of its major investment plan in India, is ready to produce more than 33 million devices annually, from its current production of 25 million units.

“Noida/Greater Noida/YEW (Yamuna Expressway) are envisaged to be a global hub of mobile phone and component manufacturing,” said Pankaj Mohindroo, Chairman, India Cellular and Electronics Association. “We estimate that of the targeted USD190 billion value production and 1billion volume of phones to be produced by 2025, at least 30% will be made in India - over USD57 billion production of just phones which is a near four-fold jump from the present numbers,” Mohindroo emphasised. “We estimate a component and sub-assembly industry of at least USD20-25 billion developing here in 4-5 years.” Out of 1 billion handsets, nearly 600 million are expected to be exported, states the National Policy on Electronics 2019 which aims to promote domestic manufacturing and export in the entire value-chain of ESDM (Electronics System Design and Manufacturing) for economic development to achieve a turnover of nearly INR 28 lakh crore by 2025.

India currently has over 450 million smartphone users. Their number is expected to reach 859 million by 2022, according to the ASSOCHAM-PwC study.

In 2014, India had just two mobile phone manufacturing units. But the “Make in India” push has raised that number to 268 mobile handset and accessories manufacturing units. India is now the second-largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world after China.

“Mobile handset manufacturing activity essentially moved to Noida/ Greater Noida region post 2014 primarily due to the region’s proximity to National Capital Region and availability of space to move in and operationalise manufacturing activity at a quicker pace,” Mohindroo elaborated.

With Apple set to manufacture new iPhones in India, it can change the face of manufacturing in the country.

“Apple has started making iPhones in India and also components both for exports. A super robust presence of Samsung in India,” IT and Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

According to CyberMedia Research, the China-based BBK Group, parent company of OPPO, Vivo, Realme and OnePlus brands, achieved 42% share in the India smartphone market in the quarter three this year, almost equal to the market share of Xiaomi and Samsung combined. According to ICEA, close to 95% of mobile phones sold in India are produced in the country itself.