The phones in students’ hands and the shirts they wear all come from China.

Our finding

Why we rated this “False”

Where the phones are made

The phone in an Indian student's hand was most likely assembled in India.

India is now the world's second-largest manufacturer of mobile phones, and a net exporter of them. Production rose from about ₹18,000 crore in FY2014-15 to roughly ₹5.45 lakh crore in FY2024-25 — a 28-fold increase. Exports grew from ₹1,500 crore to ₹2 lakh crore over the same period. [1]

In calendar year 2025, smartphones became India's single largest export commodity, at ₹2.62 lakh crore.

That last figure is worth pausing on. The claim's premise is that Indian students consume phones made elsewhere. The export data says India's biggest single export is the product in question.

More than 300 manufacturing units operate domestically, supporting around 12 lakh direct and indirect jobs.

Where the shirts are made

Textiles is the older half of the claim and the weaker half of its case.

Indian textile and handicraft exports reached ₹3.16 lakh crore in FY2025-26. Ready-made garment exports alone came to ₹1.39 lakh crore, with growth recorded across more than 120 destination markets — including the UAE at 22.3%, Japan at 20.6%, Spain at 15.5%, Germany at 9.9% and the UK at 7.8%. [2] [3]

India is a substantial net exporter of garments. The shirts in question are considerably more likely to be made domestically than imported, and a large volume of Indian-made garments is worn in Europe and West Asia.

Where the claim goes wrong

Both halves invert the trade position. On phones, India is the world's second-largest producer and its largest export is smartphones. On garments, India exports at scale to more than 120 markets.

The real argument about value addition

There is a serious criticism available here, and it is the one worth engaging with.

A large share of Indian mobile phone manufacturing is assembly. Components — chipsets, displays, memory — are substantially imported, with domestic value addition lower than the headline production figure implies. A phone assembled in India from imported parts counts fully in the production statistic while capturing a fraction of the value.

That is a genuine and widely discussed limitation. Component ecosystems take longer to build than assembly lines, and India's is still developing.

But it is a different claim from the one made. "Much of the value in an Indian-assembled phone accrues elsewhere" is defensible and important. "The phones come from China" is not, when India is the second-largest producer and smartphones are its largest export.

In short

India is the world's second-largest mobile phone manufacturer, and smartphones were its largest export commodity in 2025. Garment exports run to ₹1.39 lakh crore across 120-plus markets. The fair criticism is about domestic value addition in assembly — not about where the products are made.