Investments from mobile phone component makers are likely to reach up to $2 billion by March 2019, ICEA chairman Pankaj Mohindroo said on Wednesday.

He also said that the unique number of factories in the segment have more than doubled to 268 in the current financial year.

The India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) said that the industry has vision to increase the total number of mobile phone segment factories to 1,800 and generate 50 lakh jobs by 2025.

"By the end of March, we expect cumulative investments from mobile component makers, PCB (motherboard) assembly, etc, for this fiscal will be in the range of $1.5-2 billion (Rs 10,500-14,000 crore)," Mohindroo said.

According to the ICEA, employment in the segment has increased to 6.7 lakh till date, from 4.5 lakh in 2017-18.

Data shared by the ICEA showed mobile handset makers in the country have increased to 127 from 59, mobile phone battery units are up by over three-fold to 65 from 20, and mobile charger units over four-times to 130 from 27, etc, between this year and the previous fiscal.

ICEA data showed 225 mobile phones worth Rs 1.32 lakh crore were manufactured in India in 2017.

"We have already reported that the growing mobile manufacturing activity has saved the country Rs 3 lakh crore in foreign exchange in lieu of import substitution and created domestic value addition of over 60,000. Never ever in the history of India or anywhere in the world the mobile handset or electronics manufacturing eco-system had witnessed such an unparalleled growth as seen in India in the current phase," Mohindroo said.

He said that for growth of the mobile industry, the country needs to start looking at manufacturing for the world.

"We now need to start looking at value addition, enhance ease of doing business to boost mobile phone manufacturing. We have to start making for the world to grow our industry," Mohindroo said.

Mobile handset companies have sought a 10-year tax holiday along with regulatory reforms to focus on exports that can enable the industry to grow by over 11-fold to $230 billion by 2025.

An ICEA-McKinsey report said if India extends its ambitions to the export market, it could manufacture around 1,250 million handsets by 2025 and create an industry worth around $230 billion.

First Published:Nov 21, 2018 8:15 PM IST