Indian-Designed Phones To Arrive In Market By October 2028: Ashwini Vaishnaw

Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that India will have mobile phones designed, manufactured and branded within the country by October 2028. Addressing the NDTV World Summit in Delhi, he urged the audience to remember this date: October 23, 2028. He likened this milestone to India's own "Apple and Samsung moment" in the smartphone industry.

Vaishnaw acknowledged the complexity of phone design, citing numerous components that must be compactly integrated, including radio-frequency communication, antenna, compute, memory, passive components, camera module, display, and power management. He emphasized that these factors must be balanced against weight and battery usage.

The minister revealed that the government challenged Indian designers three years ago to design the printed circuit board and motherboard of a mobile phone, which was ultimately accomplished by an Indian company and later adopted by a major US telecom service provider for a 5G-plus phone. This achievement marks the culmination of roughly three and a half years of effort.

Vaishnaw stressed the importance of retaining the Indian brand, design, and intellectual property (IP) within the country for the future mobile phone. While the brand name, price, and specifications of the upcoming phone remain undisclosed, the minister did not provide details on the exact composition of the device's components, specifying that some would be made in India while others would be designed or assembled domestically.