Local firms such as Micromax, Karbonn, Intex and Lava, not so long ago were popular until the Chinese companies such as Xiaomi, Lava and Oppo grabbed major share in the Indian market.

The government of India is now injecting incentives to give a boost to mobile manufacturing to regain the hold that Indian companies had. Here is how Indian companies can avail the incentives:

Domestic companies have to invest Rs 50 crore initially and Rs 200 crore incrementally over four years to avail incentives. The government will provide incentives to 10 firms initially, of which five will be local firms. 

 The Chinese have managed to get a hold of the market by targeting the under Rs 15,000 market, so to counter it, the scheme helps international companies and Indian ones with incentives on mobile phones that are made in the Rs 15,000 range.  

The PLI scheme extends an incentive of 4% to 6% on incremental sales over base year 2019-20 of goods manufactured in India.

Economists say the scheme comes a bit late but better than never. While the whole world looks to India for manufacturing opportunities thanks to low-cost labour and ever growing technical expertise, the Indian Government has woken up to tackle the Chinese aggression by infusing incentives.

In 2017, India was world No 2 in mobile phone manufacturing. A beginning has been made and the Government is making the right moves.  People in the know of things say that the impetus to mobile phone manufacturing is sure to attract companies as the demand is so huge that there is a ready market.

The number of smart phone users in India is estimated to increase to 442 million in 2022. The fact that Indian mobile users is as much as the entire population of the United States of America says it all as far as demand goes.