Union Coal and Mines Minister G. Kishan Reddy on Wednesday, 15 July 2026, welcomed the Union Cabinet's approval of the Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme (MPMS), a landmark initiative carrying a budgetary outlay of ₹62,500 crore. The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared the scheme with the stated aim of making India a dominant global electronics manufacturing hub.

Context

Announcing the decision on social media, Minister Kishan Reddy said the scheme would 'accelerate domestic manufacturing, deepen value addition, strengthen supply chains, promote Indian brands, and boost design, Research and Development.' He projected mobile phone production of nearly ₹39 lakh crore over five years and the creation of around 60,000 direct jobs. The minister framed the approval as reinforcing the vision of Make in India, Aatmanirbhar Bharat, and Viksit Bharat.

Policy Backdrop

The MPMS follows a decade-long policy trajectory that began with the Make in India initiative launched by Prime Minister Modi in September 2014, which sought to attract investment and expand domestic manufacturing capacity across sectors. In 2020, the government approved the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for large-scale electronics manufacturing, which provided financial incentives tied to incremental sales and helped establish India as a meaningful node in global smartphone supply chains. The MPMS is positioned as the next step in that progression, shifting the emphasis from assembly toward deeper value addition, component manufacturing, and indigenous research and development.

The broader Aatmanirbhar Bharat framework, announced in May 2020, has underpinned successive interventions in electronics, semiconductors, and allied sectors, with the stated goal of reducing import dependence and integrating domestic industry into global value chains.

Stakeholders and Impact

Electronics manufacturers — both established domestic players and multinational contract manufacturers with operations in India — are the primary beneficiaries under the scheme's expected guidelines. The government's projection of 60,000 direct jobs signals a focus on employment-intensive assembly and component operations, while the design and R&D component targets higher-skilled segments of the workforce. Supply chain ancillaries, including packaging, logistics, and component suppliers, are also expected to benefit from the increased production volumes envisaged over the five-year horizon.

For Telangana and other states with existing electronics clusters, the scheme could attract incremental investment if state-level incentives are aligned with the central scheme's selection criteria.

What's Next

The immediate watch points are the release of detailed scheme guidelines, the criteria for selection of beneficiary firms, and the structure of disbursement linked to production and employment milestones. Quarterly monitoring reports on investment inflows, actual production output, and job creation will be critical to assessing whether the ₹39 lakh crore production target and employment projections are on track. If the MPMS follows the PLI model, an application window for eligible manufacturers is likely to open within months of the formal notification, making the next few weeks consequential for the industry.