Samsung Could Benefit as India Plans New Incentives for Phone Makers

Most of the phones Samsung sells are made in two countries. One of them is Vietnam and the other is India, and Noida in the latter is home to one of the world’s largest phone factories. Samsung has also significantly leveraged India’s Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, through which it’s claimed more than 1,000 crores INR (~$108 million) in incentives.

Samsung and Apple stand to gain as India targets a $500 billion electronics industry

Now, a new report from Reuters says that India is planning to roll out a new incentive program to keep smartphone manufacturing growing in the country, and that’s good news for Samsung as well as Apple. The Indian government is planning fresh incentives for companies that manufacture mobile phones locally. This comes as the current PLI scheme, worth nearly $21 billion, expires this month.

The program played a big role in turning India into one of the world’s fastest-growing smartphone manufacturing hubs. Companies like Samsung and Apple used the scheme to expand production in the country.

For Samsung, India is already a key manufacturing base. The company runs one of the world’s largest smartphone factories there and produces many Galaxy devices for both the local market and exports. If the government rolls out new incentives, it could further strengthen Samsung’s manufacturing operations in India.

Apple also significantly increased its production in India under the PLI scheme. The company initially assembled cheaper iPhone models locally. Later, however, it started producing some of its newest and most expensive models there as well. Apple has been gradually shifting some production away from China, and India has become an important alternative.

According to Reuters, India is now considering linking the next round of incentives to exports. In other words, companies that manufacture phones in India and ship them to global markets could receive additional benefits. One government official told Reuters that the new scheme may apply to investments starting in April. The push is part of PM Narendra Modi’s plan to expand India’s electronics manufacturing industry to $500 billion by 2030.