The Indian government is currently working on creating a new Indian mobile phone brand according to Ashwini Vaishnaw, a minister in charge of communications. He mentioned that the government plans to develop the entire handset ecosystem within the country.
Leveraging Micron Plants and Semiconductor Initiatives
This effort is expected to benefit from the success of existing large-scale mobile manufacturing, which will attract ecosystem partners to India over the next five years. In addition to this, there is a similar initiative focused on semiconductors, with a Micron plant already under construction and more approvals on the way.
Micron plants allow for the production of components at a smaller scale, enabling more localized production of mobile devices. This reduces dependency on imports and enhances the resilience of the supply chain. Investing in Micron plants and semiconductor initiatives fosters technological advancement within India. This can lead to innovations in mobile device design, manufacturing processes, and semiconductor technology, positioning India as a hub for cutting-edge technology development.
Transitioning Ecosystems and Future Initiatives
The minister stated that the country is transitioning from a design ecosystem to a fab (the complex process of producing integrated circuits) and ATMP (assembly, testing, monitoring and packaging) ecosystem.
By incorporating fab and assembly processes domestically, the country achieves greater vertical integration in the semiconductor industry. This means that the entire production cycle, from designing integrated circuits to manufacturing and packaging the final product, can be managed within the country.
Furthermore, an indigenous app store called Indus Appstore has been created, offering apps in 12 Indian languages.
Lava, an Indian mobile handset company, is already operating in several countries besides India. They claim to be the only company producing truly 'Made in India' phones with complete control over design and manufacturing within the country.
Lava is also preparing to launch smartphones based on the indigenous operating system, BharOS. Within the next six months, around 500 Lava-designed and manufactured phones will be available in India, running on BharOS.
BharOS is an initiative backed by the Indian government with the objective of creating a cost-free and openly accessible operating system (OS). Its goal is to diminish reliance on foreign operating systems within smartphones and advocate for the adoption of domestically engineered technology.
