According to investmentguruindia.com, India has become a primary beneficiary of the global shift away from concentrated electronics manufacturing in China, with its share of smartphone production rising to 18% by 2025.
China Plus One in Action
A report from Times Kuwait states that multinational companies are retaining production in China while building parallel manufacturing bases — a strategy known as ‘China plus one’. India and Vietnam emerged as the two major beneficiaries. By 2025, China, India, and Vietnam collectively accounted for more than 90 per cent of global smartphone production. China remained dominant at 63 per cent of output, while India’s share surged to 18%.
The report attributes India’s rapid ascent partly to government policy, especially the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, which rewards manufacturers for increasing domestic production and meeting localisation targets. Domestic mobile phone production has expanded over twentyfold in less than a decade, and exports have surged more than 100-fold.
India now assembles nearly a quarter of Apple’s iPhones and has become the largest source of smartphones imported into the United States. Google is shifting Pixel production toward India and plans to end Chinese manufacturing of some devices by 2027.
From Assembly to Advanced Capabilities
The report notes that India aims to move beyond final assembly of imported components and develop domestic capabilities in printed circuit boards, camera modules, batteries, displays, and semiconductors. Domestic value addition in mobile phones has risen to approximately 23 per cent, though most components and the majority of value still originate abroad.
The Indian government has committed $10 billion through its Semicon India program to build semiconductor infrastructure, including funding for chip design, manufacturing equipment, specialty materials, and skilled engineers.
“The emerging strategy is therefore not to replace China but to reduce dependence on it by developing additional manufacturing centers,”
Looking ahead, the publication projects India will build a semiconductor value chain valued between $120 billion and $150 billion by 2035. This ambition underscores a long-term, multi-decade industrial transformation anchored in targeted public investment and private-sector alignment.
Source: investmentguruindia.com
Compiled from international media by the SCI.AI editorial team.
