Make in India helps create lakhs of jobs, women take lion’s share: Vaishnaw

Women have been the biggest beneficiaries under the ‘Make in India’ initiative which created lakhs of direct and indirect jobs, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Monday.

IT Minister said that ‘Make in India’ initiative has created jobs and provided skilling at an unprecedented scale.

The Apple ecosystem alone has created at least 250,000 direct jobs, with 70 per cent beneficiaries being women. Moreover, the ecosystem has generated at least 7,50,000 indirect jobs.

“India is preparing a skilled workforce for the next phase of electronics manufacturing - Robotics, Drones, EVs, Smart Cars, Precision components, Advanced tooling, and Smart glasses,” said Vaishnaw in an X post.

Meanwhile, the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme has succeeded in attracting investments of over Rs 2.16 lakh crore in the manufacturing sector and created more than 14.39 lakh direct and indirect jobs as on December 31, 2025.

According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, cumulative sales of manufacturing units set up under the scheme exceeded Rs20.41 lakh crore, while total exports crossed Rs8.3 lakh crore.

The government has disbursed as much as Rs28,748 crore as production-linked incentives under the scheme, the statement said.

Mobile phone imports have declined by nearly 77 per cent since FY 2020–21, while over 99 per cent of domestic demand is now met through local production. Manufacturing has expanded beyond assembly to include printed circuit board assemblies, batteries, camera and display modules, enclosures and other critical sub-assemblies, enabling deeper integration with global value chains.

Domestic manufacturing capacity for IT hardware has also expanded, with progressive localisation of components reducing dependence on imports. Govt hikes component manufacturing outlay to Rs 40,000 crore, announces India Semiconductor Mission 2.0.