New Delhi: India is on track to develop its own globally competitive smartphone brands within the next two years, with Indian-designed, Indian-manufactured and Indian-branded mobile phones expected to emerge by 2028, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday.
Speaking at the NDTV World Summit in the national capital, Vaishnaw expressed confidence that India would witness its own “Apple and Samsung moment” in the smartphone industry, marking a significant step in the country’s electronics manufacturing journey.
“This is 23 October 2026. Please note it: 23 October 2028. You will have Indian-designed, Indian-manufactured, Indian-branded mobile phones,” the minister said.
Highlighting the technological challenges involved in creating a smartphone from scratch, Vaishnaw used a handset as an example to explain the complexity of the design process.
He said a mobile phone must integrate multiple advanced components, including radio frequency communication systems, antennas, processors, memory, camera modules, displays and power management systems, all within a compact form factor.
“In this small little real estate you have to have radio frequency communication. You have the antenna, compute, memory, all the passive components, a camera module, a display, and power management. Everything has to be built into this small little device. You have to manage the weight, the power management, and everything you have to do within this small little real estate, a small little form factor. That’s why it’s extremely complex to design a mobile phone,” Vaishnaw said.
According to the minister, designing such devices requires balancing factors such as weight, power efficiency and component integration, making smartphone development one of the most complex engineering tasks in consumer electronics.
Vaishnaw said the government’s efforts to build domestic design capabilities began several years ago when it challenged Indian engineers and technology firms to develop printed circuit board (PCB) designs, which serve as the motherboard of mobile phones.
“Three years back we gave this challenge to Indian designers: why can’t you design the PCB, which is the motherboard of a mobile phone?” he said.
–IANS–
