More than 350 million smartphones shipped to India in 2017: Assocham-KPMG study

The Fast Track Task Force is aiming to increase the number of locally manufactured smartphones to 500 million. It also aims to raise handset exports to 120 million by 2020.

Indian handset exports flourished from 2008 to 2012 going up to Rs 12,000 crore

A joint study conducted by Assocham-KPMG reveals that the smartphone shipments to India increased to 350 million units in 2017. The study also highlights that there has been a growth in revenue from ₹111,000 crore in 2015 to ₹135,000 crore in 2016.

With smartphones constituting 43 per cent of the total handset shipments in 2016 -- having gained immense popularity in the last four years -- the Indian handset market has recorded over 350 million shipments in 2017, the joint study said on Tuesday.

"Robust growths of the handset market coupled with enhanced connectivity of telecom services have been pivotal in growth of various industries such as retail, manufacturing, IT, e-commerce," said the study titled 'Accelerating growth and ease of doing businesses'.

The study said Indian handset exports flourished from 2008 to 2012 going up to ₹12,000 crore, but were interrupted by a decline of almost 30 per cent in two subsequent years.

Downfall of handset manufacturing industry became a major area of concern for the government, it added.

The study pointed out that in order to revive the industry, it is imperative to boost handset manufacturing in India.

"The FTTF (Fast Track Task Force), set up in 2014, has a target of increasing count of handsets manufactured in India to 500 million and handset exports to 120 million by 2020," the study said.

"Further, 'Make in India', 'Skill India', and other initiatives taken by the government played a pivotal role to achieve an 85 per cent growth in handset manufacturing recorded in the year 2015-16 (₹54,000 crore) over the previous year, which in 2016-17 grew to ₹90,000 crore," it added.

The Assocham-KPMG study revealed that currently, the only export incentive available to handset manufacturers is a two per cent incentive under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) introduced in the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20.

"The industry is of the view that the government may increase the MEIS incentive and introduce new incentives such as freight equalisation subsidy, and enhance duty draw back to 3 per cent to attract more players in the market, and to encourage the existing players to ramp up manufacturing which would also create more jobs in India," it added.