India to Develop Own Mobile Phone Brand: Ashwini Vaishnaw

New Delhi, Feb 21 (PTI) The government is working on developing an Indian mobile phone brand based on learning from the success of large scale mobile manufacturing in the country, union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday.

While speaking at the Indus App store launch event by PhonePe, Vaishnaw said the government is likely to approve 2-3 semiconductor plants very soon.

"We will work on developing our own Indian handset brand. We will work on creating the entire handset ecosystem in the country. Our initial success of having large scale mobile manufacturing has given us very good learning.

"It has given the industry a lot of confidence. It has given the impetus to the ecosystem partners to come to India. That will be the journey in the next five years," Vaishnaw said.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a very clear roadmap for development of the semiconductor ecosystem in the country over a period of 20 years.

"We started our India semiconductor mission and we have already had first very good success. The Micron plant is already under construction.

"Within a very short time frame we will see at least 2 more approvals or may be three more approvals. In that sense, we are moving from the design ecosystem to fab and (Assembly, Test, and Packaging) ATMP ecosystem," Vaishnaw said.

The minister said that the government is looking to have at least three or four good, high volume fabrication plants, create a niche and take leadership in at least one product category within the next five years.

The minister on Wednesday launched an indigenously developed app store -- Indus Appstore, which has been acquired by PhonePe.

Indus Appstore has over 2 lakh mobile apps and games, across 45 categories. Users will be able to discover these apps conveniently in 12 Indian languages. The apps on the support can be accessed in 12 Indian languages.

PhonePe, CEO and Founder, Sameer Nigam said the company is in discussion with mobile phone makers to pre-load it on the handset.

Unlike Google's Playstore or Apple's App store, the apps will not be required to pay commission on their earnings to Indus Appstore, Nigam said.

Also there will be no app listing fee until April 1, 2025 for developers.

"Anything that is allowed to operate under law of the land, will be allowed to be uploaded on the Indus Appstore. If we remove any app, then we will share the reason for removal of the app," Nigam said.