New Delhi - Apple has surpassed US$ 2.42 billion (Rs. 20,000 crore) in iPhone exports from India in just the first quarter of FY24, accounting for half of what it had achieved in the full fiscal year of FY23. The Q1 figures indicate a 400% increase in iPhone exports over the same quarter last fiscal year, when it exported only US$ 600.60 million (Rs. 4,950 crore).

Under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, its three vendors — Foxconn Hon Hai, Wistron, and Pegatron — have committed to exports of US$ 7.40 billion (Rs. 61,000 crore) in FY24, the scheme's third year. The iPhone models 12, 13, and 14 drove enormous growth in exports. During the second full year of the PLI for mobile devices in FY23, when all three vendors were eligible for financial incentives, their combined iPhone exports exceeded US$ 4.85 billion (Rs. 40,000 crore).

Apple alone supplied 45% of the country's total mobile phone exports of US$ 10.92 billion (Rs. 90,000 crore) in that fiscal year. Exports of mobile phones from India grew by about 100% last year, from US$ 5.46 billion (Rs. 45,000 crore) in FY22.

Mobile phone exports have also contributed to electronics becoming one of the top five exports in the previous fiscal year, after engineering items, petroleum products, gems and jewellery, and organic and inorganic chemicals. HIS code smartphones have risen as the fifth greatest commodity export after automotive diesel, diamonds, aviation turbine fuel and motor petrol in terms of individual products.