Subhechcha Ganguly 
Following the geopolitical unrest and trade disputes with China, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is thinking about moving the manufacturing of its hardware products to India. According to reports, the tech giant has requested bids from manufacturers in India to produce 5–10 lakh units of its Pixel smartphones. The report cited a source when it claimed that the figure corresponds to 10%–20% of the device’s total estimated annual production.
The plan has been reviewed by Google CEO Sundar Pichai, but no final decision has been made. Taiwan and Vietnam are additional alternatives that Alphabet is looking into.The main smartphone rival of the company, Apple Inc., already produces at least four models up to the iPhone 13 in India. It is reportedly thinking about releasing the most recent iPhone model, the iPhone 14, in India as well.The wide-ranging, protracted lockdowns in China caused by COVID have hindered the global supply chain and presented significant difficulties for retail, logistics, and the shipment of goods. The action also coincides with a war being fought worldwide for semiconductors. According to an employee, the situation has been particularly dire for Google, which has been plagued by protracted delays in obtaining components for some of its devices.
Manufacturers hoping to establish a base in India cite the government’s innovative performance-linked incentive (PLI) plans for advancing local manufacturing as one of their motivations.Samsung and Apple both joined the “Make in India” movement. In order to take advantage of the programme, Samsung established the “largest mobile handset manufacturing factory” in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.The union government encouraged Apple earlier this year to establish India as its global base and export fully assembled products to the rest of the world.
With more than 95% of the market share at the end of 2021, Google’s Android operating system continues to dominate the Indian smartphone market. This is a portion of the larger Indian smartphone market, which is expected to reach $139 billion in revenue in 2021. By 2028, this amount was predicted to increase by 10.5% annually to $281 Billion.
