The manufacturing sector has led India’s industrial growth, averaging 5.2 per cent annually over the last decade (2014-2024). Economic Survey (2025-26) highlighted that the industrial sector grew by 7% in the first half of 2025-26.
As per the India Cellular and Electronics Association, mobile phone manufacturing has grown 21 times over 10 years (2014-24). From just $2 billion in 2014-15 to $50 billion in FY24, production has increased by a stunning 2000%. In the same way, the rise in mobile phone exports from $187 million to an estimated $14.5 billion during the same period represents a staggering 7500% increase—this is a significant shift in the domestic manufacturing ecosystem.
India’s smartphone exports have surged to nearly $80 billion between 2021 and 2025. In 2025 alone, exports are estimated at $30 billion — a 47% jump from $20.45 billion in 2024 — with iPhone shipments contributing over $22 billion, or about 75% of the total. Once ranked 167th in India’s export basket in 2015, mobile phones have now become the country’s number one export item. During FY21 through FY25, Apple has shipped a cumulative total of $50 billion in mobile devices. In the first nine months of FY26 alone, Apple has exported iPhones worth $16 billion during the PLI period, which is set to end in March 2027.
Smartphones that are ‘made in India’ have become the most significant product category exported to the US and other advanced countries. Currently, India ranks third globally in smartphone exports—after China and Vietnam—and second in total mobile phone production. India is expected to overtake Vietnam to become the world’s second-largest mobile phone exporter by 2026.
A series of policy initiatives and reforms has driven India’s manufacturing boom, especially in smartphone manufacturing. India’s improvement in the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking, Make in India initiative (2014), Digital India (2015), Skill India (2015), the Phased Manufacturing Programme (2015), the National Policy on Electronics (2019), and the Production Linked Incentive scheme (2020) have significantly contributed to the country’s rise as an electronics manufacturing hub, alongside other schemes.
The availability of a skilled workforce, policies, ecosystems, and cheap labour has attracted Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Vivo, and other companies to manufacture in India.
India has made steady progress in manufacturing, especially Apple’s manufacturing journey in the country stands out as a great example for other sectors to emulate, as Apple produces 25% of iPhones in India.
Apple’s India Growth:
When Apple chose India as its manufacturing base, it accounted for barely 0.5% of its global sales. However, today, India has emerged as one of Apple’s fastest-growing markets. Apple began its manufacturing journey in India with two iPhone plants in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and today, its footprint spans eight states and a network of over 40 suppliers.
India’s share in Apple’s global production rose from 7% in FY23 to 14% in FY24 and 20% in 2025. Meanwhile, Apple’s production in India surged from $13.8 billion to $24 billion over the past year, one of the fastest manufacturing scale-ups in the country in the last 50 years.
Apple makes about 220-230 million iPhones globally each year, and India’s share of that total has been increasing rapidly. This is reflected in its 53 per cent increase in iPhone production in India last year, with the country now producing about a quarter of its global iPhones, as the company shifts supply chains to avoid China-related tariffs.
In 2025 alone, Apple exported iPhones worth $23 billion from India, contributing to India’s overall smartphone export of $30 billion. The value of all iPhones made in India exceeded ₹3 trillion, placing it just behind Tata Motors, India’s largest listed manufacturing company by revenue. This underscores the significance of the ecosystem Apple has built in India.
India was Apple’s fourth-largest market in 2025, after the US, China, and Japan, and is the fastest among its top five markets.
In the Financial Year 2025, Apple emerged as the winner among big tech companies operating in India, outpacing Microsoft, Google, and Meta in both revenue and profit growth. The company reported that during its December 2025 quarter, it experienced strong double-digit revenue growth in India, with record revenue for its premium products, including iPhone, Mac, iPad, and Services, despite Apple’s relatively small market share in India, underscoring India’s continued importance to Apple’s global expansion. Apple ranked fifth by volume in India’s smartphone market, with a 10% share, but led by value with a 29% share, fuelled by a strong ‘premiumisation’ trend.
With India now producing one in every five iPhones manufactured, the company is on track to surpass the 30% local sourcing requirement well ahead of the 2028 deadline.
Apple is also planning to introduce Apple Pay in India by late 2026.
India has also recorded the world’s second-fastest growth in refurbished iPhone sales during the first half of 2025, and it is all set to drive the second-hand iPhone sales in the future as well.
India is among the largest telecom markets globally. India is the world’s second-largest telecom market, with 1.2+ billion smartphone users and the highest mobile data consumption globally.
THE ENABLERS OF APPLE’S JOURNEY IN INDIA
India’s Growth Story:
India remains one of the fastest-growing major economies, with real GDP expanding at 6.5% and nominal GDP nearly tripling from ₹106.57 trillion in 2014–15 to ₹331.03 trillion in 2024–25. India became the world’s 4th-largest economy in 2025 and is all set to become the world’s third-largest economy, with a projected GDP of $7.3 trillion by 2030, and has witnessed strong growth across all sectors. The largest consumer base, spending power, demand for premium phones, rising middle-class incomes, and a strong economy collectively helped India transition to rapid growth. Despite global challenges, India’s growth is intact.
Foreign Direct Investment in Telecom:
India continues to attract strong foreign investment due to regulatory reforms, improved infrastructure, and ease of doing business, which have helped sustain FDI growth. The Government’s decision in 2021 to permit 100% FDI in the telecom sector via the automatic route was a bold step aimed at attracting global investment and strengthening India’s telecom infrastructure. The cumulative FDI into India over the last 5 years has averaged approximately $70-$85 billion annually. India recorded record FDI inflows of $81.04 billion in FY 2024-25, an increase of 14 per cent over the previous full fiscal year. India attracted a total of $748.78 billion in FDI over the last 11 years, an increase of 143 per cent. The Telecommunications sector has been at the forefront of attracting this investment. Since FDI liberalisation in FY 2021–22, India’s telecom sector has attracted about USD 1.74 billion in FDI up to FY 2024–25.
China Plus One Strategy:
India’s rise as a manufacturing hub is part of the “China Plus One” strategy, in which companies have diversified production beyond China amid pandemic-related supply chain disruptions and rising labour costs there. The geopolitical tensions between the US and China have also pushed US- and Western-based companies to exit China. The China Plus One initiative led companies operating in China to shift their operations to India, and Apple became the first major company to expand its manufacturing presence there under this strategy. Apple expanded its industrial footprint by creating a manufacturing hub in India in a very short period. India has quickly become a major iPhone exporter, reducing supply chain risk and dependence on China by leveraging India’s growing market, abundant, cheap, and skilled labour, and boosting exports.
PLI Scheme:
India’s mobile phone exports have surged 127-fold, rising from ₹1,500 crore in FY2014-15 to ₹2,00,000 crore in FY2024-25. The momentum continues in FY2025-26. In just the first five months, smartphone exports crossed ₹1 lakh crore, marking a 55% increase from ₹64,500 crore in the same period last year—largely driven by the PLI scheme. The mobile manufacturing ecosystem in India has expanded from just 2 units in 2014 to over 300 today.
The Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, launched in April 2020, has become one of the most successful government programs to promote the country’s manufacturing sector, having generated 12 lakh direct and indirect employment opportunities and attracting committed investments of ₹1.76 lakh crore by March 2025. The PLI scheme has now been expanded to 14 manufacturing sectors.
While other sectors have benefited, the telecom sector has made strong progress under the PLI scheme. In FY25 alone, telecom equipment exports surged 51.2% year-on-year. Between FY21 and FY25, telecom exports grew at an average annual rate of 1.5%, while imports declined by 18.5%. Mobile manufacturing production value has surged nearly 30-fold, rising from ₹0.18 lakh crore in FY2015 to ₹5.45 lakh crore in FY2025.
Apple has been the biggest beneficiary of the PLI scheme, with its suppliers’ getting incentives for all five years it’s been in force.
Apple’s Manufacturing Momentum:
Apple’s push into India’s supply chain picked up speed after the COVID-19 pandemic, and today’s geopolitical tensions have only accelerated that shift. Tata Group’s acquisition of Wistron in 2023 and a 60% stake in Pegatron in 2025—moves that firmly established Tata within Apple’s iPhone assembly ecosystem.
Alongside Foxconn and Tata, a growing network of approximately fifty Apple suppliers has established itself in India. The company now works with around 45 manufacturers in the country, of which nearly half are MSMEs. Apple accelerates its India push further by investing more to strengthen its base beyond China. To deepen the local ecosystem, Apple has partnered with five firms to strengthen its position as a global hub for iPhone manufacturing.
Job Creation:
Apple’s expanding operations and supply chain in India have already generated over 350,000 direct jobs and could have created a few more lakh indirect jobs by the end of FY 2025. Apple’s supply chain partners, Tata Electronics and Foxconn, generated over 200,000 direct jobs, helping Apple emerge as the country’s largest creator of blue-collar jobs for first-time job seekers, with women accounting for 72% of the workforce.
Brand India:
Apple’s success is a testament to the country’s efforts to attract MNCs. Apple has exported Indian made iPhone models 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and the latest model, iPhone 17, thus making India the only country outside China to achieve this milestone, reinforcing its position as a global hub for high-end electronics manufacturing.
What is the Future Ahead?
Apple’s iPhone Global Value Chain (GVC) demonstrates India’s potential to create high-paying jobs by connecting to global production networks. India’s capital-intensive sectors, such as electronics and machinery, have experienced faster job creation and export growth than traditional labour-intensive industries. Apple’s playbook can serve as a model for other sectors as well.
India’s rise as a manufacturing hub for Apple is a significant milestone, but building a deep and resilient ecosystem to sustain such investments remains a challenge.
India largely assembles iPhones rather than manufacturing them. The high-value components — such as chips and display panels are still imported. Building a strong domestic ecosystem will require sustained investments in manufacturing, technology transfer, stronger MSMEs, and the growth of specialised local suppliers.
India’s real opportunity lies in moving up the value chain — becoming a supplier of critical components by investing in R&D, semiconductor manufacturing, and advanced electronics, much like China and other East Asian economies have done.
Infrastructure and policy support are equally important. While the government has introduced reforms to improve the business environment, industries continue to seek greater policy stability, simpler compliance requirements, faster approvals, and support for critical infrastructure.
India must also invest in skills to build a workforce ready for AI-driven and high-tech manufacturing. MSMEs need to become more productive, innovative, and globally competitive to support the broader ecosystem. In an era of geopolitical tensions and shifting supply chains, India’s stable governance and long-term growth prospects make it an attractive destination for high-tech manufacturing.
