Will banning cheap Chinese phones make India a handset-making hub?

As recently as 2015, Indian brands like Micromax, Lava, Karbonn and Intex adored the shelves of phone shops across the country, and used to sell like hot cakes. But then, the Chinese phones started pushing the less-fascinating Indian handsets off the shelves, slowly but steadily.

Cut to 2022. Local firms have been decimated. Indian brands combined have a market share of less than 1 per cent in overall smartphone shipments from all brands, including America’s Apple and South Korea’s Samsung. Meanwhile, the top four Chinese brands have a 63 per cent share.

While in the sub-10,000-rupees segment, the market share of Indian brands is around 3-4 per cent, while that of Chinese brands is almost 90 per cent.