Wednesday, 14 Jan, 2026
Photo courtesy: Pixabay
Smartphones are now India’s top export, up from 167th place in 2015. The tougher task is to deepen manufacturing, build skills and technology, and capture more value—not just volume—from global electronics chains
Apple has quietly crossed a major milestone in India. In 2025, iPhones exported from the country crossed the Rs 2-lakh crore mark for the first time, highlighting how quickly India has become a serious manufacturing base for one of the world’s most valuable companies.
According to figures shared by Apple’s suppliers with central and state governments, iPhone exports from India reached about $23 billion, or Rs 2.03 lakh crore, between January and December 2025. This was a sharp jump of nearly 85 per cent compared with the same period in 2024. The number is striking not only because of its size, but also because of how recently Apple began making iPhones in India.
When production started in 2021, exports were worth just Rs 8,800 crore. They rose to Rs 36,234 crore in 2022 and more than doubled to around Rs 74,000 crore in 2023. By 2024, exports had crossed Rs 1.1 lakh crore. In just four years, India moved from being a tentative experiment in Apple’s global plans to a key export hub.
This transformation has been driven largely by the government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for electronics, launched in 2020. The scheme promised financial incentives to companies that expanded manufacturing and exports from India. For Apple, the early focus was simple: build scale quickly and ship phones abroad. Domestic sales were important, but exports were the main goal under the PLI framework.
Apple entered India with two global contract manufacturers—Foxconn and Wistron. Production was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic and by tensions along the India-China border, but iPhone assembly finally began in 2021. From the start, a large share of these phones were meant for overseas markets, helping Apple reduce its heavy dependence on China.
At the time, many expected Apple to bring a large part of its Chinese supplier base into India. The government even approved investment proposals from 14 Chinese suppliers despite stricter rules under Press Note 3, which requires additional scrutiny of investments from neighbouring countries. But Apple’s strategy began to change around 2023.
Instead of relying mainly on Chinese firms, the company started drawing Indian businesses into its supply chain. This shift was not easy. Indian companies had limited experience in making high-precision components for smartphones. But the decision aligned well with the government’s push to build local capabilities and reduce reliance on imports.
The Tata Group was the first major Indian player to step in, taking over Wistron’s iPhone factory in Karnataka in 2023. It later acquired a controlling stake in Pegatron’s unit in Tamil Nadu. Since then, a growing number of Indian companies — many of them small and medium enterprises—have become part of Apple’s supplier network.
Companies such as Motherson, Hindalco, Wipro Pari, Jabil, Aequs, SFO Technologies and Bharat Forge are now supplying components and sub-assemblies. Apple’s supplier footprint now stretches across eight states. For India, this matters because it moves the country beyond simple assembly work.
According to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, value addition in smartphone manufacturing has risen to about 19 per cent over the past four years. This is still well below China’s 40–45 per cent, achieved over nearly two decades. But India’s progress has been much faster.
The government is trying to push this further through a new Electronics Components Manufacturing Scheme. The aim is to raise value addition to around 30 per cent over the next four years and to make India an exporter of components as well as finished phones. Several Apple suppliers have already signed up.
Smartphones are now India’s top export item, a dramatic rise from their 167th position in 2015. Apple’s export milestone shows how far the country has come. The bigger challenge now is to deepen manufacturing, build skills and technology, and ensure that India captures more value—not just higher volumes—from the global electronics supply chain.
