Budget 2019: Local mobile manufacturing generating more jobs than ever, says Piyush Goyal

Local mobile manufacturing has taken off big in the last couple of years, generating thousands of jobs across the country, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday.

"Mobile and its parts manufacturing companies have grown from two to 268 now, creating thousands of jobs in both urban and rural areas of the country," Goyal said while presenting the Interim Budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha.

With the help of the government's phased manufacturing programme to incentivise indigenous production of handsets and their various sub-assemblies, most of such companies are from China who are now manufacturing and assembling flagship smartphones and their parts here. 

In 2018, nearly 300 million mobile handsets were produced locally, according to Counterpoint Research.

"In 2015, we set-up our first manufacturing facility that currently employs more than 5,000 people and generates employment for many more," Nipun Marya, Director, Brand Strategy, Vivo India, told IANS. 

"With our recent announcement of an additional manufacturing plant, we are planning to provide additional jobs to 5,000 more in the first phase," he added.

Samsung India has also set up world's largest mobile manufacturing facility in Noida that has doubled up the production, generating more jobs.

Goyal said the government aims to have one lakh digital villages in the next five years, adding that the vision is to make India a modern and technology-driven society.