ICEA

The statement from ICEA, which is apex industry body for the mobile and electronics industry, came after a media report said that the government is planning security testing for smartphones and crackdown on pre-installed applications on mobile devices -- a claim vehemently denied by Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

In an interaction with IANS, Mohindroo said that Apple, which is the most valuable company in the world, is welcomed here to manufacture its entire product line and "it is in our great interest that we have their large manufacturing footprint". "I just hope that India Inc acts together so that we provide the right space for them (Apple), because we lost Samsung completely to Vietnam," he said.

"With the 2021-22 Budget, there were duty rate increases on the inputs of mechanics, power banks, connectors, PCBA, camera modules, chargers, and true wireless stereo. These were not envisaged by us or MeitY, and were not even a part of the PMP architecture," said the industry's apex body in the letter. After earlier policy interventions, the charger industry had got well established in India with more than 60 manufacturing units producing over 600 million chargers, with good exports as well, the ICEA said.

"We at ICEA believes that the PLI scheme would give thrust to 'Make in India' initiative and will attract huge investments of Rs 45,000 crore plus in the coming years. With this push for ACC batteries, the sector would witness robust growth in the coming years," said Pankaj Mohindroo, Chairman, ICEA.