Vaishnaw Sets October 2028 Target For Indian-Designed Smartphone
Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has set October 23, 2028, as the target date for India to produce mobile phones that are domestically designed, manufactured and branded, Urban Acres reported. Speaking at the NDTV World Summit in New Delhi on October 23, 2026, Vaishnaw outlined the two-year goal to retain product design, intellectual property and consumer branding in India, though he did not name a brand or disclose specifications, pricing, production volume or a launch schedule, according to Urban Acres.
The policy push comes as Counterpoint Research reported on Friday that India's overall smartphone shipments dropped 20 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2026 to a 10-year low, with sub-Rs 20,000 handset shipments falling 47 per cent amid high memory prices, ET Retail reported.
In Q3 2026, Ai+ Smartphone was the fastest-growing brand in India with shipments increasing 306% year-on-year as Indian brands' combined share rose to 7% in Q3 2026 from 2% in Q3 2025, according to Counterpoint Research.
Domestic Handset Engineering And The US Operator 5G-Plus Project
During the summit interview, Vaishnaw pointed to the engineering complexity of fitting radio-frequency communication systems, antennas, computing processors, memory, cameras, displays and power-management parts into a compact handset while balancing heat, weight, battery life and internal space constraints, Urban Acres reported. According to Vaishnaw, the effort began several years ago when the government challenged Indian engineers to design a mobile-phone printed circuit board, a task accepted by two companies, Urban Acres stated.
As reported on Jan 23, 2023, the Indian government-funded BharOS developed at IIT Madras is an Android Open Source Project (AOSP) based operating system that omits default Google apps and services while Google's Android and Apple's iOS dominate the mobile operating system sector.
Vaishnaw said one of those two firms developed a design chosen by a major US telecommunications operator and subsequently designed, manufactured and supplied a 5G-plus mobile phone to customers for that carrier, accumulating three-and-a-half years of handset-design experience, according to Urban Acres.
Make In India Exports And Unresolved Commercial Questions
Vaishnaw credited the Make in India initiative, started in 2014, with expanding domestic manufacturing across mobile phones, drones, missiles and trains, and said electronics had risen to become India's third-largest export category with expectations of moving into second place soon, Urban Acres reported. Urban Acres noted that the minister's remarks did not include export values, domestic value-addition figures or the institutional, funding and procurement structure for the 2028 handset, leaving open whether a private firm, consortium, existing manufacturer or public-private entity will build it to compete against established ecosystems like Apple and Samsung.
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