A Truly Made-in-India Smartphone? That Day Isn’t Far Away, Ashwini Vaishnaw Says

It’s only a matter of time before a truly Made-in-India smartphone breaks cover.

“India, step by step, will manufacture every component in a mobile phone…thereby positioning itself as a global player in electronics manufacturing,” Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for IT & Electronics, said at the inauguration of a facility to make tempered glass, in Noida on Saturday (30 August 2025). A Made-in-India chip will roll out soon, he said, in yet “another milestone in the country’s journey towards self-reliance”.

India’s Optiemus Electronics Ltd. has partnered with the world’s largest mobile glass maker Corning Inc. to set up India’s first tempered-glass manufacturing facility at Noida, with an initial investment of ₹70 crore. The facility will have a total installed capacity of 25 million units/year in the first phase of production, generating 600 direct jobs. The production will be scaled to 200 million units/year in the second phase, entailing an additional investment of ₹800 crore and generating 4,500 direct jobs.

The tempered glass produced at the facility will be branded as ‘Engineered by Corning’ for supply to both domestic and international markets.

“Despite being one of the world’s largest mobile phone markets, India has relied on imports for tempered glass,” Optiemus Group Chairman Ashok Kumar Gupta said in a statement. “We are looking at building global-scale to support the Indian and international markets [for tempered glass]. Our aspiration is that every Indian mobile phone user must use a Made-in-India tempered glass…to protect their screens.”

According to Minister Vaishnaw, India’s electronics manufacturing capacity has over the past decade grown by six times to ₹11.5 lakh crore, with exports worth ₹3 lakh crore and jobs created for 25 lakh Indians.

The tempered-glass opportunity itself is worth ₹20,000 crore, with domestic demand for more than 50 crore pieces. The global market for the product is estimated at more than $60 billion (about ₹5.28 lakh crore).