MediaTek's Anku Jain Bullish on India's Manufacturing Push, Flags R&D Gaps

The Indian government's manufacturing push through financial incentives has been a "big success", but the country has to put more effort in research and development, said Anku Jain, Managing Director of MediaTek India.

"If you talk about smartphone manufacturing, one key KPI is the value addition. A country like Taiwan, they have value addition of something like 70%, but in India, value addition would be in the 20–25% range, which is still low—it was worse earlier. So the value addition that has been happening in India is getting, although it's slowly getting better," Jain said in an exclusive interview with Outlook Business. He discussed India's manufacturing push and how it has also helped MediaTek’s business in the country.

In 2024, ‘Made in India’ smartphone exports grew 6% year-on-year, driven largely by rising exports from Apple and Samsung, which together accounted for 94% of India's smartphone exports, according to Counterpoint. The Indian government's PLI scheme has encouraged global manufacturers to expand local production, boosting domestic manufacturing. Samsung grew 7% YoY, while vivo, which took the top spot in shipments, grew 14% due to retail expansion. Foxconn’s output rose 19% YoY, supported by Apple, and Tata Electronics was the fastest-growing manufacturer with 107% growth, driven by iPhone production and its entry into chipmaking. However, industry experts say that value addition in mobile devices has remained around 28%.

Taiwanese fabless chipmaker MediaTek has been in India since 2004, with two R&D centres in Noida and Bengaluru and an engineering workforce of over 1,000. According to Counterpoint Research, as of April 2025, MediaTek led India’s smartphone chipset market with a 45% share, followed by Qualcomm at 32%. The company recently launched its mid-segment 5G smartphone chip, the MediaTek Dimensity 8450, featuring eight Arm Cortex-A725 cores and an Arm Mali-G720 MC7 GPU.

"We want to have our entire range available because that gives our OEM partners choice—what they want to use for their target segment. That strategy will continue," said the MediaTek India MD. He added that the company's flagship chipset series, Dimensity 9000, has been growing with $1 billion in revenue in 2023 and $2 billion in 2024, and this year would be even higher, as per Jain.

"So that is something we prefer. We have more and more premium and flagship chipsets. Our strategy is to have the range, from budget to premium to flagship, because I feel that can democratise availability of smartphone for everyone," he added.

MediaTek Sees Good Talent in India

"From MediaTek Global’s point of view, we have very good engineering strength here in India, and therefore we have grown a lot over the years," Anku Jain said, adding that the Indian team contributes significantly to both hardware and software design for various devices including smartphones, smart TVs, and notebooks. MediaTek India serves as an extension of the company’s global R&D efforts and supports local customers with chip interface and integration.

Jain also discussed India’s semiconductor Design‑Linked Incentive (DLI) programme, which is part of the government's ₹76,000 crore Indian Semiconductor Mission aimed at fostering a domestic semiconductor chip‑design ecosystem, including ICs, SoCs, chipsets, systems, and IP cores. As of late, about 12 startups have been approved under the programme, with proposals worth ₹342 crore, ₹133 crore committed in subsidies, but only around ₹7 crore disbursed.

Jain sees these startups not as competition but as contributors to a stronger overall semiconductor ecosystem. He notes that while most Indian firms currently focus on legacy nodes, MediaTek is working on advanced nodes like 3nm and 4nm. He further added that it would take a long time before they reach the mature nodes.

"As an Indian, I would be proud when that happens," he said.