India is going deeper into smartphone manufacturing, beyond final assembly: Ashwini Vaishnaw 

Union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said India’s smartphone manufacturing push is increasingly moving beyond assembling finished devices to producing the components and materials that go inside them. In a post on X, Vaishnaw highlighted the expansion of domestic manufacturing across batteries, electronic components and other parts of the smartphone supply chain.

“India already makes the phone. Now, we’re going deeper – manufacturing what goes inside it,” Vaishnaw wrote, describing the next phase of the government’s Make in India push.

According to the minister, battery manufacturing is one area where the domestic ecosystem is expanding. He pointed to lithium-ion battery cells being manufactured in India and said the country is now moving further down the battery value chain.

Vaishnaw specifically mentioned synthetic graphite, which is used in the anode of lithium-ion batteries. “One of them is synthetic graphite, used in the anode. Now, this too will be made in India,” he said.

He also highlighted materials used inside battery cells. Special additives used in the liquid electrolyte to improve battery performance and longevity are among the materials that, according to Vaishnaw, will increasingly be manufactured domestically.

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Another material he mentioned was acetylene black, which helps improve electrical conductivity inside batteries. “Small material. Important job,” Vaishnaw said while highlighting its role in the battery ecosystem.

Broader electronics ecosystem

The minister said the manufacturing expansion extends beyond batteries. Cameras, displays, speakers, coils, enclosures, printed circuit boards (PCBs) and connectors are among the components increasingly being made in India.

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“That’s the journey of #MakeInIndia – going deeper into the value chain,” Vaishnaw wrote, adding that the next phase would involve making more components and materials domestically.

The comments come as India has expanded its smartphone manufacturing base over the past decade. According to the figures cited in the source material, India is now the second-largest phone maker globally, with around 330 million phones manufactured annually. In FY2023-24, 99.2% of mobile phones sold in India were made domestically, compared with 26% a decade earlier.

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Focus shifts to battery supply chain

Vaishnaw also referred to ATL’s battery-cell facility in Manesar, Haryana, whose total investment is stated at ₹3,000 crore in the source material.

The government has separately announced a ₹62,500-crore Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme (MPMS), which is scheduled to run for five years from FY2026-27 to FY2030-31. The scheme provides manufacturing incentives ranging from 2.25% to 5%, with additional provisions for Indian brands and design and R&D.

Vaishnaw’s latest comments underline a shift in the manufacturing narrative—from producing finished smartphones in India to building a wider domestic ecosystem for the materials, components and sub-assemblies that go into them.

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