India is aiming to move beyond assembling mobile phones to designing and manufacturing its own branded handsets, with Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw setting October 2028 as the target for an Indian-designed, Indian-manufactured and Indian-branded mobile phone.“This is 23 October 2026. Please note it: 23 October 2028. You will have Indian-designed, Indian-manufactured, Indian-branded mobile phones,” Vaishnaw said while speaking at a news channel event on Friday.He said a phone integrates several components, including radio-frequency communication systems, antennas, processors, memory, passive components, camera modules, displays and power-management systems, within a compact form factor.“That’s why it’s extremely complex to design a mobile phone,” Vaishnaw said, highlighting the need to balance weight, power consumption and performance while fitting multiple components into a limited space.The minister said the government had challenged Indian designers three years ago to develop a printed circuit board (PCB), the motherboard of a mobile phone. Two companies took up the challenge, and one developed a design that was subsequently selected by a major US telecom service provider.According to Vaishnaw, the company has already designed and delivered a 5G-plus mobile phone to one of the largest telecom service providers in the United States, with the handset manufactured and delivered to customers. He said the capability developed over the past three-and-a-half years would now provide the foundation for an Indian mobile phone brand.He said economic liberalisation from 1990 to 2004 had helped manufacturing, but alleged that a “control mindset” returned between 2004 and 2014. Since 2014, he said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government had pursued a different approach through the Make in India initiative.The minister stressed that India’s manufacturing ambitions needed to be understood against the country’s historical and political-economic context, as the government seeks to strengthen domestic design capabilities, retain intellectual property within the country and expand its role in the global electronics industry.