Local mobile manufacturing generating more jobs than ever: Goyal

New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS) Local mobile manufacturing has taken off big in the last couple of years, generating thousands of jobs across the country, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday.

"Mobile and its parts manufacturing companies have grown from two to 268 now, creating thousands of jobs in both urban and rural areas of the country," Goyal said while presenting the Interim Budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha.

With the help of the government's phased manufacturing programme to incentivise indigenous production of handsets and their various sub-assemblies, most of such companies are from China who are now manufacturing and assembling flagship smartphones and their parts here.

In 2018, nearly 300 million mobile handsets were produced locally, according to Counterpoint Research.

Xiaomi initiated its 'Make in India' programme in January 2015 and within six months, set up a plant in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh in partnership with Foxconn.

"In March 2017, we announced second manufacturing plant in Sri City in partnership with Foxconn. Today, Xiaomi has six smartphone manufacturing plants in India and recently announced the first surface-mount technology (SMT) plant dedicated towards local manufacturing of PCBA units in Chennai," Muralikrishnan B, Chief Operating Officer, Xiaomi, told IANS.

"Our factories with Foxconn has led to employment generation of over 10,000 people, of which more than 95 per cent are women," he added.

Samsung India has also set up the world's largest mobile manufacturing facility in Noida that has doubled the production, generating more jobs.

"In 2015, we set-up our first manufacturing facility that currently employs more than 5,000 people and generates employment for many more," Nipun Marya, Director, Brand Strategy, Vivo India, told IANS.

"With our recent announcement of an additional manufacturing plant, we are planning to provide additional jobs to 5,000 more in the first phase," he added.