MeitY gazettes the ₹62,500 crore mobile-phone scheme: 2.25–5% on sales, extra 3% for Indian-brand design, 60,000 direct jobs projected.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology notified the Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme on 21 August 2026. The scheme was still the development lead on 23 August desks. Budgetary outlay is ₹62,500 crore across five years, financial year 2026-27 to 2030-31. It succeeds the Production Linked Incentive scheme for large-scale electronics manufacturing, which ended on 31 March 2026. The Cabinet had approved the new scheme on 15 July. It is in effect from 1 April 2026, MeitY Secretary S. Krishnan has said. A gazette notification is not a production achievement.

Incentives run from 2.25 per cent to 5 per cent on eligible sales of phones made in India. An additional incentive of up to 1.5 per cent is available for specified domestic components and sub-assemblies. Indian brands can receive an additional 3 per cent on eligible sales for product design and research and development. The Indian-brand track requires trademark and intellectual property in India, Indian citizens holding more than 51 per cent, and own design and research in India, with no minimum-sales bar; selection is by an inter-ministerial committee chaired by the MeitY secretary. The manufacturer track includes contract manufacturers with at least ₹10,000 crore turnover in 2025-26.

Government projections for the tenure are cumulative production of about ₹39 lakh crore, against about ₹20 lakh crore in the previous phase; exports of about ₹15 lakh crore, against about ₹7.5 lakh crore; and about 60,000 direct jobs. These are scheme targets. They are not achieved figures. This desk will keep every crore on the projection line labelled as a target.

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said three unidentified Indian companies could become brands in ten to fourteen months, and that design must be own design, not copycat. He has also said he expects Apple to make products beyond the iPhone in India. That is a ministerial expectation. It is not a company notification. Detailed implementation guidelines and a project-management agency were still to be issued at the time of the 23 August desks.

New Delhi is the dateline. Form B and any poll date are not notified. Until guidelines issue and factories report, the public ledger is a ₹62,500 crore five-year gazette, base incentives of 2.25–5 per cent, a 1.5 per cent domestic-sourcing add-on, a 3 per cent design add-on for Indian brands, a ₹10,000 crore turnover floor for contract manufacturers, and targets of about ₹39 lakh crore production, about ₹15 lakh crore exports and about 60,000 direct jobs. The successor to the earlier production-linked scheme is now on the statute book. The phones are still to be counted.