Govt notifies Rs 62,500-crore mobile scheme, expects Apple to expand India manufacturing beyond iPhones
The Union Government notified the Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme (MPMS), a Rs 62,500-crore outlay running from 2026-27 to 2030-31 to expand domestic mobile phone production and component sourcing.
The scheme has a two-track structure: Track/TS-1 for large contract manufacturers (minimum Rs 10,000 crore turnover in 2025-26), and Track/TS-2 reserved for Indian-owned brands with in-house design, IP, and no minimum turnover requirement.
Incentive payouts range from 2.25 to 5 percent of eligible mobile phone sales, with an additional component of up to 1.5 percent for domestic sourcing of parts such as display modules, camera units, enclosures, and batteries, and a 3 percent bonus for Indian brands doing design and R&D domestically.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology indicated an expectation that Apple would broaden its India manufacturing beyond iPhone assembly, and that Google could shift a larger share of Pixel production (routed via China) to India.
Separately, the ministry is engaging with three domestic companies that could develop into standalone smartphone brands over the next 10-14 months, subject to assessment of design and intellectual property capability.
Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme — the predecessor framework
The PLI Scheme for Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing was notified in April 2020 under the Atmanirbhar Bharat push, giving companies an incentive of 4-6 percent on incremental sales (over a 2019-20 base year) of mobile phones manufactured in India, for five years. It was later extended by a year to 2025-26. The new Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme (MPMS) is a successor scheme designed to replace this expiring PLI window, shifting emphasis from pure output incentives toward domestic component sourcing and Indian-owned brand/IP development.
Key Details
- PLI for mobile manufacturing: notified April 2020, incentive 4-6% on incremental sales over FY2019-20 base year, tenure of 5 years (later extended to 2025-26).
- MPMS: Rs 62,500 crore outlay, tenure FY2026-27 to FY2030-31, incentive 2.25-5% of eligible sales plus sourcing/design bonuses.
- Nodal ministry for both schemes: Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
MPMS is the direct successor to the PLI mobile scheme, moving the incentive design from "make more phones in India" (PLI) toward "make more of the phone in India, and build Indian-owned brands" (MPMS's component-sourcing and Track 2 provisions).
Electronics Manufacturing and Atmanirbhar Bharat
India's mobile phone manufacturing base has grown chiefly through assembly-stage incentives since 2017 (when Apple's contract manufacturers began assembling iPhones domestically via Foxconn and, more recently, Tata Group's Tata Electronics). The Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) initiative, launched in 2020, uses PLI-style incentive schemes across 14 sectors, of which electronics/mobile manufacturing has been among the largest beneficiaries by outlay.
Key Details
- Apple's India-assembled iPhones account for a substantial share of its global iPhone output; assembly began in 2017.
- Tata Electronics and Foxconn are the principal contract manufacturers assembling iPhones in India.
- Dixon Technologies manufactures Google Pixel phones in India.
The MPMS's Track 2 (Indian brands) and domestic-component bonuses are explicitly designed to push India's electronics ecosystem beyond low-value-add assembly (which characterized the PLI era) toward component manufacturing and Indian intellectual property — testing the assembly-vs-manufacturing distinction UPSC often probes in GS-3 industrial policy questions.
FDI and Foreign Direct Investment in electronics manufacturing
Mobile phone manufacturing in India relies heavily on both domestic incentive schemes and foreign direct investment/contract manufacturing arrangements with multinational brands (Apple, Google, Samsung). Schemes like MPMS operate alongside — not instead of — FDI policy, since global brands retain their own capital investment decisions while Indian incentive schemes shape where within the value chain that investment lands.
Key Details
- Nodal ministry: MeitY (scheme administration) works in coordination with DPIIT (FDI policy) for electronics investment.
- Track 1 of MPMS is open to contract manufacturers irrespective of ownership; Track 2 is reserved for majority Indian-owned (51%+) brands.
The scheme's dual-track design lets India simultaneously court continued foreign contract manufacturing investment (Apple, Google) and cultivate homegrown brand champions — a policy pattern relevant to GS-3 questions on industrial policy instruments.
- Scheme outlay: Rs 62,500 crore over FY2026-27 to FY2030-31.
- Incentive range: 2.25% to 5% of eligible mobile phone sales.
- Additional domestic component sourcing incentive: up to 1.5%.
- Additional bonus for Indian brands with domestic design/R&D: 3%.
- Track 1 minimum turnover eligibility: Rs 10,000 crore in FY2025-26.
- Predecessor PLI scheme (2020): incentive of 4-6% on incremental sales over FY2019-20 base year.
- Nodal ministry: Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).