Smartphone exports cross ₹1 trn in 5 mths

Breaking all records, and despite a gloomy export picture owing to the tariff dispute with the United States, the smartphone sector, driven by the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, has seen exports cross ₹1 trillion in the first five months of FY26, based on the vendor and industry data submitted to the government.

- SURAJEET DAS GUPTA

This figure is 55 per cent higher than the ₹64,500 crore for the corresponding five-month period in the previous financial year.

Apple's two iPhone contract manufacturers—Tata Electronics and Foxconn—contributed over ₹75,000 crore, or nearly 75 per cent of smartphone exports for this period.

Export in five months this financial year is 10 per cent higher than the ₹90,000 crore achieved for the 12 months of FY23.

The impact of the PLI scheme is clear from the fact that since FY23, for each successive year export has grown by nearly 50 per cent (in one year) or more than that.

Proponents of the smartphone PLI scheme have long argued that achieving a global scale in production value is possible only through export, as shown in the case of China.