The three-day India Mobile Congress (IMC) will showcase the widening convergence of telecom with new domains, such as semiconductors and deep tech, P Ramakrishna, the forum's chief executive officer, said on Tuesday. With more than 250 global and domestic exhibitors, the seventh edition is expected to draw more than 100,000 visitors this year, he said. There will also be over 5,000 CXO-level delegates and more than 350 speakers.
Uttar Pradesh has the potential to attract investment of about Rs 72,000 crore (Rs 720 billion) by 2020 in the field of electronics system design and manufacturing.
Ringing Bells has said the manufacturing cost of the phone is about Rs 2,500.
A disagreement between mobile operators and device manufacturers over e-SIMs has reached the government with the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) asking the DoT to order handset manufacturers to introduce eSIMs, in addition to the physical SIM slot, in all smartphones costing over Rs 10,000. The reason is the unprecedented global shortage of semiconductors which has severely impacted the supply of SIM cards across the globe and pushed up the price by four to five times. The shortage is not likely to improve before 2024.
The government's ambitious vision document that aims at achieving electronics manufacturing with a value of $300 billion by FY26 (including exports of $105-130 billion) could end up far lower than the target, according to a reality check this month. The reality check came from the Indian Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), which partnered with the government in preparing the document. The members of the ICEA are mobile and electronics companies, and its assessment, based on current trends, indicates that the total electronics production in FY26 will be around $225 billion.
Noida-based Ringing Bells is launching India's most affordable smartphone, priced at Rs 251.
The number of smartphones booked during the initial hours was 30,000.
Nokia's Chennai plant is under freeze over tax dispute.
Nokia may be allowed to sell Chennai mobile plant.
Indian cellular companies added 13.7 lakh (1.37 million) customers in January this year, taking its subscriber base to 2.33 crore (23.3 million) even as CDMA based mobile companies added another 218,000 customers during the period in reference.
The Directorate of Enforcement is investigating Ringing Bells, the company which has launched smartphone for Rs 251, for alleged contravention of FEMA.
Apple is hoping to assemble in India 25 per cent of all iPhones produced globally to reduce its heavy dependence on China.
The finance ministry is looking at a reworked proposal from mobile device makers on how to fight the rampant and growing smuggling of very high end phones. The proposal suggests reducing the basic customs duty (BCD) on phones which have a CIF (cost, insurance and freight or price at landing in the port) value of over Rs 35,000-Rs 40,000. The retail value of these phones is upwards of Rs 70,000.
The Department of Telecom is believed to have sought a 15-year tax holiday on domestic production of handsets and a lower unifom VAT rate among other relaxations to rejuvenate mobile phone manufacturing in the country.
Apple's three vendors in the country have hit the milestone of creating 30,000 new direct jobs since the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for mobile devices kicked off in April 2021. Based on the government's estimate that one direct job in the electronics industry helps to generate three indirect ones, Apple's vendors, Foxconn Hon Hai, Wistron and Pegatron, are close to creating 100,000 direct and indirect jobs. The direct jobs that the vendors have created account for a fourth of Apple's commitment to generate 60 per cent of the new direct jobs out of the 200,000 jobs targeted by the government under the PLI scheme within five years.
NavIC consists of a constellation of seven satellites and a network of ground stations and is touted to be more accurate than GPS.
'We have informed the government multiple times that the situation in the US and India are different.' 'Here, there will be a 500 MHz gap in the frequencies which will safely allow aviation without interference.'
In a communication to the empowered committee on PLI recently, the Indian Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA) has stated that except one player (Samsung), all the other eight players (which include vendors of Apple Inc) selected under the scheme were facing numerous challenges in fulfilling the qualification criteria.
Hong Kong based Hutchison Telecommunication along with some other investors are believed to have signed the deal to buy out a 5.11 per cent stake of Hinduja TMT in the unlisted Indian cellular company Hutchsion Essar.
By the end of December 2021, India had 389 million users who did not have access to mobile Internet, while there were 765.8 million mobile Internet users in the country.
The government will set up expert groups to explore the adoption of common chargers for mobile and all portable electronic devices, and submit a detailed report in two months, Consumer Affairs secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said. The department of consumer affairs on Wednesday called a meeting with industry stakeholders. After the meeting, Singh said India can initially think of exploring shifting to two types of chargers, including a C-Type port.
Overall mobile phone production was about 68 million in 2014, increased to 100 million in 2015 and 350-400 million in July 2016.
Released on Wednesday, the report shows that 81 per cent of men and 72 per cent of women in India owned a mobile phone as of 2022, translating to a gender gap of 11 per cent. The numbers drop steeply in terms of mobile internet adoption. While 52 per cent of Indian men use mobile internet, women are way behind, with only 31 per cent of them accessing mobile internet, the report pointed out.
India doubled its exports of smartphones to $11.1 billion (about Rs 91,000 crore) in 2022-23 (FY23) over the previous year's figure of $5.48 billion (Rs 45,000 crore), thanks largely to the Apple juggernaut, according to data from the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA). Union Minister for Communications, Electronics & IT Ashwini Vaishnaw said: "With the doubling of exports of smartphones to over Rs 90,000 crore, India is well on its way to becoming a leader in the global mobile device market." On the flip side, despite the government prodding Chinese companies to export more, their smartphone shipments fell steeply by 26 per cent from $214 million in FY22 to $157 million in FY23.
The B.1.617 variant of SARS-CoV2, also being called a 'double mutant' or the 'Indian strain', has been found prevalent largely in Maharashtra and Delhi that have been severely hit by a devastating second wave of the pandemic.
IAMAI in a statement, which represents digital businesses in India, said Trai's recommendation to formulate standards of anonymisation and de-identification was akin to putting the cart before the horse, and till such time the Srikrishna Committee submits the report, making these standards would be like groping in the dark.
Come July, mobile phone prices are expected to be dearer by up to 10 per cent due to the steep depreciation in the value of rupee against dollar.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has directed the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) to make a presentation detailing the pros and cons of the controversial Indian 5G standard, also known as 5Gi, which the government has been pushing for. The move comes after serious differences emerged among telcos with regard to the technology's efficacy and implementation.
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Samsung makes the largest number of non-4G feature phones in India
Departments of electronics, excise, I-T launch probe into Rs 251 smartphones
From real estate behemoths to infrastructure majors, from mobile device manufacturers to heavy engineering companies, they all made commitments to the tune of billions of dollars. Unfortunately, the reality has fallen far short.
With supply of mobile chipsets running dry, manufacturers here are left with no option but to hike prices once again, making it the fourth round of increase in 2020.
As much as Rs 8,000 crore worth of mobile phones in this segment - out of a total of Rs 15,000 crore - come into the country through the grey market. The government imposed the duty on these phones primarily to encourage domestic production but the strategy has failed as the bulk of high end mobile phones are currently imported.
A Dubai trip plus Apple iPhone 12 is cheaper than buying the phone in India. Various models of the iPhone 12 Pro and Max are cheaper in Dubai by up to Rs 35,000 owing to higher GST, Customs duty in India.
Components manufactured in India are low-value products like casing and box packaging that constitute 5% of the bill for materials required in phone manufacturing.
Their favourite alternatives: Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Note, India is missing from that list. And this is despite an attractive financial incentive scheme for OSAT players. The reason, said a senior executive of a US chip company who had a meeting in Taiwan just a few weeks ago, is that "they want more predictability in government policy because they plan to put in big money."
A whopping Rs 62,476 crore has been "illegally" transferred by smartphone maker Vivo to China in order to avoid payment of taxes in India, the Enforcement Directorate said Thursday, as it claimed to have busted a major money laundering racket involving Chinese nationals and multiple Indian companies. This money is almost half of Vivo's turnover of Rs 1,25,185 crore, it said without stating the time period of the transaction. The crackdown on the leading Chinese company came after the federal probe agency found that three Chinese nationals, all of whom "left" India during 2018-21, and one other person from that country incorporated as many as 23 companies in India in which they were also helped by a Chartered Accountant, Nitin Garg.
How dominant are Chinese firms in India's sub-Rs 10,000 mobile device market? The question has become relevant as the government has been thinking of reserving this price segment for domestic players who have not been able to battle the Chinese onslaught. However, telecom firms and others are concerned that such a move could stymie the effort to build affordable 5G phones in the sub-Rs 10,000 category.
Indian mobile handset market was worth Rs 8,805 crore (Rs 88.05 billion) in 2004-05 out of which share of GSM handset was 84 per cent at Rs 7,384 crore (Rs 73.84 billion) with Nokia capturing a sizable chunk of marketshare at 62.3 per cent.
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