India opened a Rs 62,500-crore mobile manufacturing scheme on Friday, backdated to April

Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday that the Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme is officially open, and that it takes effect from 1 April 2026. The Cabinet cleared the Rs 62,500-crore outlay in July. It replaces the production-linked incentive for large-scale electronics manufacturing, which expired on 31 March.

The scheme runs through 2030-31 and is split in two. Target Segment 1 is for manufacturers, including contract manufacturers, with at least Rs 10,000 crore of turnover in 2025-26. Existing brands have to sell an extra Rs 5,000 crore above their FY26 base this year, then Rs 10,000 crore extra in FY28, climbing by another Rs 5,000 crore each year to Rs 25,000 crore extra in FY31. A new brand becomes eligible only after Rs 10,000 crore of annual sales in India. Target Segment 2 is reserved for Indian brands: companies that keep trademarks and intellectual property in India, are controlled by Indian citizens holding more than 51 percent, and do their own design and research here. That track has a lower turnover bar of Rs 1,000 crore in FY26.

Payouts on the manufacturing track range from 2.25 to 5 percent of eligible sales. Indian brands on the second track can get 5 percent, plus another 3 percent for design and R&D done in India. Both tracks can earn up to 1.5 percent more if they localise key components, including displays, camera modules, enclosures, batteries and USB cables, for at least a quarter of the handsets they sell in a year. Vaishnaw said cumulative mobile production, which he put at about Rs 22 lakh crore, would rise to about Rs 40 lakh crore over the scheme period. The ministry's own note puts the figure at about Rs 39 lakh crore and the jobs at about 60,000 direct. India already makes 99.2 percent of the phones used in the country, and smartphones were the largest export item in 2025-26.

Vaishnaw also said the government is talking to Apple about assembling more than iPhones here, and that it is working separately with three Indian companies that could become smartphone brands in the next 10 to 14 months. He said each firm's IP and design would be assessed before any support was cleared.

The last PLI round paid people to screw phones together at volume. This one is trying to pay them to own the insides. That is a harder trick, and the extra 1.5 percent for local components is the part of the gazette that will decide whether this is industrial policy or another assembly bonus. I would watch the three unnamed Indian brands more closely than the Apple talking point, because a scheme that needs Foxconn to work has already told you who the customer is.

Companies can file claims every quarter. The outlay is capped and will be split between the two tracks by demand. Watch who actually applies on the Indian-brand track, and whether the 51 percent and in-house design tests survive first contact with a contract manufacturer.