Locally-produced telecom gears hit Rs 1 lakh-cr sales, exports rise 1.5 pc: Eco Survey

The telecom sector has seen an increase in exports, a decline in imports, with locally-produced gears under production linked incentive scheme clocking sales of Rs 1 lakh crore, the Economic Survey 2025-26 said on Thursday. The telecom sector has achieved notable success, with exports rising by 1.5 per cent average annual growth rate, while imports have concurrently declined by 18.5 per cent AAGR, the Survey said.

The telecom sector has seen an increase in exports, a decline in imports, with locally-produced gears under production linked incentive scheme clocking sales of Rs 1 lakh crore, the Economic Survey 2025-26 said on Thursday. The Survey tabled in Parliament said that India has developed end-to-end indigenous 4G and 5G (NSA) core network technologies, joining a small group of countries with domestic telecom capabilities, while national programmes have expanded network reach and capacity. ''The telecom sector has achieved notable success, with exports rising by 1.5 per cent (average annual growth rate), while imports have concurrently declined by 18.5 per cent (AAGR),'' the Survey said. It said that the trend indicates an early accomplishment in import substitution, aligning with the PLI framework's overarching objective of enhancing market penetration abroad. ''The PLI Scheme launched in 2021 with an outlay of Rs 12,195 crore to boost domestic manufacturing of telecom products has attracted over Rs 4,700 crore investments, enabled over Rs 1,00,000 crore sales, including Rs 21,000 crore exports and also has created around 30,000 jobs,'' the Survey said. PLI scheme beneficiary GX Group CEO Paritosh Prajapati said the Economic Survey's AAGR findings underline the structural progress India has made under the Atmanirbhar Bharat framework in the telecom sector. ''Initiatives such as PLI, phased manufacturing programmes, and ease-of-doing-business reforms are enabling domestic companies to scale faster and compete globally. Going forward, policy continuity, deeper component-level manufacturing, and higher investment in R&D will be critical to strengthening India's telecom ecosystem and expanding its role in global value chains,'' Prajapati said. The Survey said that telecom connectivity has expanded steadily over the past decade. Total telephone connections rose from about 933 million in 2014 to over 1.2 billion by November 2025, with tele-density increasing from 75 per cent to 86.8 per cent, driven largely by faster growth in rural areas, indicating improved digital inclusion. According to the survey, internet subscriptions expanded sharply from about 25 crore to 101.8 crore by September 2025, alongside rising broadband penetration. ''Affordability improvements are reflected in average monthly data consumption per subscriber, which increased from 62 MB in 2014 to about 25 GB by mid-2025. This was supported by a steep decline in data prices - from around Rs 300 per GB in 2014 to Rs 8.3 per GB in 2025,'' the Survey said.

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