India is reportedly preparing a new policy to continue and expand incentives for smartphone manufacturing once the current Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme ends on 31 March 2026. Government officials and industry stakeholders are discussing the structure of the next programme, which is expected to start from April 2026, reports Bloomberg. The objective is to maintain the strong momentum India has achieved in electronics manufacturing over the past few years and to ensure that large global giants like Apple and Samsung keep expanding their production operations in the country.
The upcoming incentive framework is likely to differ significantly from the existing PLI scheme. The current programme rewards companies mainly for increasing production and sales of phones manufactured in India, whereas the next phase is expected to place greater focus on exports and the use of locally produced components. And by linking incentives more closely to exports, the government clearly aims to transform the country from a manufacturing base primarily serving the domestic market into a global smartphone export hub.
The new incentives are being planned at a time when India’s smartphone manufacturing sector has grown rapidly. In 2024-25, India produced close to $60 billion worth of mobile phones, an unexpected rise compared with around $2 billion in production a decade earlier. Even mobile phones have emerged as India’s largest export category in 2025, with shipments worth about $21.7 billion going to markets across Europe, the United States and the Middle East.
Most importantly, Apple has been one of the biggest drivers of this growth. Through its contract manufacturers, including Foxconn, Pegatron and Tata Electronics, the company has significantly expanded iPhone assembly in the country. Production in the country reached around 55 million iPhones in 2025, representing an increase of more than 50% compared with the previous year. Estimates suggest that around one-quarter of global iPhone output now comes from India, showing a major shift in Apple’s supply chain strategy as it reduces dependence on China.
At the same time, Samsung – the world’s largest smartphone maker by shipment volume – also plays a prominent role in India’s manufacturing ecosystem. The company operates one of its biggest global smartphone factories in Noida. This facility produces devices both for the Indian market and for export. It is worth noting that Samsung has been among the largest beneficiaries of the existing PLI programme and is expected to benefit again if the government introduces export-linked incentives, since the company already exports significant volumes of phones from India.
The timing is also notable, as in the financial year ending March 2025 India’s electronics production was valued at about $125 billion. The government has now set an ambitious target of increasing this figure to $500 billion in electronics output by fiscal year 2031. In parallel, India’s Production-Linked Incentive programmes have expanded and now cover 13 different sectors. Across all these sectors combined, the schemes have attracted over ₹1.7 lakh crore (~ $21 billion) in investments.
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