Govt. eyes 2 mn. jobs in mobile phone units

The government expects its ‘major new policy’ of phased manufacturing programme to create 2 million jobs and half a billion dollars worth of mobile manufacturing activity in the country over the next five to seven years, Electronics and Information Technology Secretary Aruna Sundararajan told The Hindu.

“The basic chipset (for mobile handsets) is, of course, imported,” she said. “But the rest of the manufacturing can happen in India. So the phased manufacturing program is our roadmap for the next ten years as to how value addition should happen in India. This is a very major policy declaration which we believe will incentivise large scale mobile manufacturing.”

The Centre will initiate fresh talks with Cupertino-based Apple which will now have to calibrate its plans to manufacture its iconic iPhones in the country, in line with a new phased manufacturing programme for mobile phones notified on Friday.