Smartphones Became India's Largest Export in 2025-26, With Mobile Phone Exports of ₹2.60 Lakh Crore, Up From ₹1,566 Crore in 2014-15

Mobile phones were India’s largest export product in 2025-26, with shipments worth ₹2.60 lakh crore against ₹1,566 crore in 2014-15. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said in a release dated 15 July 2026 that phones had moved from 153rd place among India’s export items to first. The same release puts India’s mobile phone output at ₹6.27 lakh crore for 2025-26, up from ₹18,900 crore in 2014-15.

What the government’s figures show

Two official releases carry the headline. The first, a Lok Sabha reply published on 11 March 2026, ranked exports by tariff line for calendar 2025. Smartphones (customs code 85171300) came first at $30.13 billion, ahead of automotive diesel fuel at $16.34 billion and cut diamonds at $12.47 billion. A reply of 1 April 2026 gives the same smartphone line as ₹2,62,452 crore and names the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS) as the source.

The second release, of 15 July 2026, uses the financial year and the wider heading “mobile phones”. It gives electronics exports of ₹4.24 lakh crore ($47.96 billion) for 2025-26, the third-largest export category, up from ₹38,263 crore in 2014-15. Dividing the ministry’s two rupee figures puts phones at about 61 per cent of electronics exports and about two-fifths of phone production.

The two claims count differently, so they should not be merged. One is a calendar year and a single customs line, the other a fiscal year and a broader category. Both point the same way.

The import side moved too. The 1 April reply says imported phones were 75 per cent of demand in 2014-15 and 0.02 per cent in 2024-25. The Cabinet note of 15 July 2026 says 99.2 per cent of phones used in India are made in India. A PIB backgrounder of 2 March 2026 counts more than 300 manufacturing units, against two in 2014. For the economy these exports sit inside, see how India’s GDP ranks.

How the production-linked incentive worked

A production-linked incentive (PLI) pays a company a share of its sales above a starting level, so the money follows output. The Cabinet approved the scheme for large-scale electronics on 21 March 2020 with an incentive outlay of about ₹40,951 crore. MeitY’s release of 6 October 2020 says it was notified on 1 April 2020 and pays 4 to 6 per cent of incremental sales over the base year 2019-20, for five years after it.

On 6 October 2020 the ministry approved 16 applicants. For phones priced at ₹15,000 and above, the named foreign firms were Samsung, Foxconn Hon Hai, Rising Star, Wistron and Pegatron. The release says Foxconn Hon Hai, Wistron and Pegatron are contract manufacturers for Apple iPhones. The domestic firms were Lava, Bhagwati (Micromax), Padget Electronics, UTL Neolyncs and Optiemus Electronics. The ministry then expected the approved companies to produce more than ₹10.5 lakh crore over five years, about ₹6.5 lakh crore of it exported.

Results come from two later releases. The 15 July 2026 release says that as of 31 March 2026 cumulative production under the scheme crossed ₹11.62 lakh crore, exports exceeded ₹6.53 lakh crore and investment passed ₹20,600 crore. The 1 April 2026 reply, covering the period to February 2026, lists targets for the 32 approved companies: investment ₹7,000 crore (achieved ₹17,519 crore), production ₹8,12,550 crore (₹11,01,813 crore) and exports ₹4,87,530 crore (₹6,20,974 crore). Direct jobs reached 1,85,175 against a target of 2,00,000, or 92 per cent. The scheme’s tenure ended on 31 March 2026.

Where the phones go and who ships them

The government releases cited here give no country breakdown for phones and name companies only in the 2020 approvals. The figures below come from trade press, and each is attributed.

The India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), an industry body, estimated April to September 2025 exports at $13.5 billion. IANS reported on 14 October 2025 that the United States took nearly 70 per cent of that, about $9.4 billion against $3.1 billion a year earlier, when it took 37 per cent. The UAE, Austria, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were the other leading markets. For the full year, KNN, citing the Economic Times on 23 April 2026, reported US purchases of $19.68 billion, up 86 per cent on 2024-25, with the UAE, China, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Slovak Republic also named.

On the makers, IANS reported on 29 July 2026 that iPhones were over 75 per cent of 2025-26 smartphone exports, about $22 billion of roughly ₹2.6 trillion ($29.4 billion). The same article, citing an unnamed report, said Foxconn Hon Hai’s exports rose 48 per cent in calendar 2025 and Samsung’s export contribution rose 4 per cent. None of the government releases cited here gives an Apple or Samsung output figure.

Two cautions follow from those numbers. ICEA had projected about $35 billion for 2025-26, above the $29.4 billion reported afterwards, and neither report explains the gap. And with one brand above three-quarters of shipments and one country taking nearly seven dollars in ten in April to September 2025, the record rests on a narrow base of buyers and sellers.

The jobs, and the first months of 2026-27

MeitY’s 15 July 2026 release says electronics manufacturing has created nearly 25 lakh jobs, about 12 lakh of them in mobile manufacturing, direct and indirect. Women are nearly 70 per cent of the direct mobile workforce, it says, and the Hosur and Sriperumbudur plants in Tamil Nadu and the Bangalore units in Karnataka together employ more than one lakh people. The ministry’s figure for jobs created under the PLI schemes is about 1.8 lakh.

For the new fiscal year, IANS reported on 29 July 2026 that smartphone exports in April to June 2026 were $9.84 billion, up 23.4 per cent from $7.97 billion, and 64.8 per cent of electronics exports of $15.2 billion. It did not name its data source. Business Today, citing an Economic Times report on 30 September 2026, put April to August smartphone exports at $15.96 billion, up about 36 per cent, with iPhones at $13.2 billion, up about 47 per cent and 82 per cent of the total. Electronics exports in that period were $26.66 billion, up 34 per cent. Neither is a government release, and the Business Today piece relies partly on an unnamed source.

How much of each phone is made in India

Domestic value addition is the share of a product’s value created inside the country. Assembly counts for little of it, so a phone can be made in India while most of its parts are imported. MeitY’s 15 July 2026 release says value addition in electronics rose from 15 to 23 per cent. The 1 April 2026 reply, which attributes its figure to industry estimates, says 18 to 20 per cent. The two statements are three months apart and do not match. In 2020 the ministry had said it expected value addition in phones to rise from 15 to 20 per cent to 35 to 40 per cent.

Components are the next target. The Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme, notified in 2025, had its outlay raised from ₹22,919 crore to ₹40,000 crore in Budget 2026, and the 1 April reply says 75 applications had been approved across 12 states, with investment commitments of ₹1.15 lakh crore against a target of ₹59,350 crore. The chips that go into phones are covered in the semiconductor plant race, and defence is another sector where India has moved from buying to selling.

What the next scheme pays for

The Cabinet approved the Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme (MPMS) on 15 July 2026, with an outlay of ₹62,500 crore, and MeitY notified it on 21 August 2026. It runs from 2026-27 to 2030-31. Phone makers, including contract manufacturers registered in India, earn 2.25 to 5 per cent on eligible sales, plus up to 1.5 per cent more for sourcing key components domestically, where those parts go into at least 25 per cent of the phones a firm makes in a year.

A second track supports Indian-owned brands. They earn 5 per cent, plus 3 per cent for design and research done in India, and must meet the scheme’s Indian-brand tests, including more than 51 per cent shareholding by Indian citizens. The first track requires a turnover of at least ₹10,000 crore in 2025-26. The Cabinet expects cumulative phone production of about ₹39 lakh crore over the scheme’s five years and about 60,000 direct jobs.