Twelve years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the Make in India initiative, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday, 25 September 2026 declared that India has fundamentally shifted its identity — from a consuming nation to a creating, manufacturing, and exporting one.

From import-dependent to 99.2% local: the mobile phone story

The centrepiece of Fadnavis's post is a striking claim about India's electronics transformation. He stated that 99.2% of mobile phones sold in India are now built locally — a complete reversal from the pre-2014 era when the country imported the vast majority of its handsets. The figure, if it holds, represents one of the most dramatic supply-chain domestications in recent manufacturing history. It reflects a deliberate policy arc: Make in India launched in September 2014 set the direction, and the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for mobile electronics provided the financial muscle to attract global assembly giants and nurture domestic component makers.

Defence exports and the Atmanirbhar pivot

Alongside electronics, Fadnavis highlighted a 'massive surge' in defence exports — a sector that was, for decades, almost entirely import-reliant. The Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, announced in May 2020, formalised the self-reliance push with dedicated positive indigenisation lists that barred imports of specific defence items and pushed public and private manufacturers to fill the gap. The ripple effect has extended beyond hardware: shipbuilding, aerospace components, and military electronics have all been cited by the government as emerging export verticals.

The broader context matters here. Global supply chains have been in flux since the pandemic and geopolitical fractures of the early 2020s, and India has positioned itself as an alternative manufacturing node — particularly for buyers looking to diversify away from single-source dependencies.

Maharashtra's stake in the national manufacturing story

As Chief Minister of Maharashtra — which hosts some of India's densest industrial corridors, from Pune's auto clusters to Nagpur's aerospace and defence parks — Fadnavis has a direct political and economic stake in amplifying this narrative. The state has been a beneficiary of multiple PLI rounds and has pitched itself aggressively to semiconductor and electronics investors. For Fadnavis, the #12YearsOfMakeInIndia anniversary is both a national milestone and a local pitch.

The post, tagged at @narendramodi and @makeinindia, is clearly timed to the initiative's anniversary and serves as a signal of continued alignment between the Maharashtra government and the Centre's industrial agenda. The hashtags #AtmanirbharBharat and #MakeInIndia have trended on this date as BJP leaders across the country amplified the anniversary message in unison.

India's manufacturing ambitions are now measured not just in import substitution, but in export invoices. Whether the headline numbers get independently validated will matter — but the political momentum behind them is already shaping investment conversations and trade policy in real time.