Union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on 23 October that India will have a mobile phone designed, manufactured and sold under an Indian brand by 23 October 2028. Speaking at a news channel event, he asked the audience to note the exact date. Almost every phone sold in India today is assembled here, but the design and the brand usually belong to companies based elsewhere.

Vaishnaw pointed to a design effort that began about three years ago, when the government challenged Indian firms to design a phone’s main circuit board. Two companies took it up. He said one has since designed a 5G phone that a large US telecom operator has picked up and delivered to its customers. He did not name the company or the operator.

Why it matters

Designing a phone is far harder than assembling one. As Vaishnaw described it, a handset has to fit radios, antennas, a processor, memory, cameras, a display and power management into a very small space. An Indian phone brand would mean the core engineering and the intellectual property stay in the country, rather than only the assembly lines.

For buyers, the label on the box matters less than the basics. Any Indian brand will need to compete on price, cameras and battery life, offer several years of software and security updates, and have service centres outside the big cities. Indian brands such as Micromax and Lava were once among the country’s best sellers before Chinese brands overtook them, and those are the areas where they fell behind.

What to watch

  • Which companies the government backs, and whether the 2028 date holds.
  • Whether the first models aim at budget buyers or the premium end.
  • Promises on software updates and after-sales service, which matter as much as where a phone is designed.

Related on Elsepost

Sources