India’s first Telecom Manufacturing Zone (TMZ) in Gwalior has attracted cumulative investment commitments worth ₹5,500 crore, with fresh proposals of ₹2,000 crore secured during the second Investors’ Meet held in Mumbai on Tuesday. The latest commitments are expected to generate nearly 4,000 jobs, taking the project’s total projected employment generation to more than 18,000.
The Investors’ Meet was jointly chaired by Union Minister for Communications and Development of North Eastern Region Jyotiraditya M. Scindia and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Dr. Mohan Yadav. The event witnessed participation from nearly 18 leading companies across the telecom ecosystem.
The latest commitments build on the ₹3,500 crore investment proposals and 14,000 employment opportunities announced during the inaugural Investors’ Roundtable in New Delhi last week, bringing the total committed investments for the project to ₹5,500 crore. The government aims to attract investments exceeding ₹10,000 crore into the Telecom Manufacturing Zone.
Addressing industry leaders, Scindia said India has undergone a transformational telecom and digital revolution under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership over the past 12 years and is now poised to emerge as a global manufacturing hub for telecom products.
Emphasising the vision of “Make in India, Make for the World” and “Local for Global,” the minister said the country must transition from being a services-led economy to a product-led economy by increasing domestic value addition, creating intellectual property within India and enabling Indian-designed telecom products to compete globally.
He said the proposed Telecom Manufacturing Zone is a first-of-its-kind initiative designed exclusively for the telecommunications sector, bringing together the entire value chain – from research and development to manufacturing, testing, semiconductors, optical fibre, telecom equipment and allied industries – within a single integrated ecosystem.
Highlighting Gwalior’s strategic advantages, Scindia said its central location, robust connectivity, industrial infrastructure, skilled talent pool and competitive operating costs make it an ideal destination for telecom manufacturing investments. He also pointed to upcoming infrastructure projects, including the Agra-Gwalior Greenfield Expressway, which will reduce travel time between Delhi-NCR and Gwalior to under three hours.
The Union Minister said that the Telecom Manufacturing Zone will be implemented through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) comprising representatives from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Government of Madhya Pradesh. He described it as an unprecedented Centre-State partnership that will facilitate investments and ensure smooth implementation.
CM Yadav invited industry leaders to invest in Madhya Pradesh, highlighting the state’s investor-friendly policies, manufacturing ecosystem and incentives. He said the Telecom Manufacturing Zone marks an important collaborative initiative between the Union Government and the state government to strengthen India’s telecom manufacturing capabilities.
The investor engagement was organised by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in collaboration with the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and included both an Investors’ Roundtable and a Strategic Roundtable on “Capitalizing India’s Telecom Decade and Promoting Telecom Manufacturing Zone.”
According to DoT, several global technology companies, including Qualcomm, Ericsson, Nokia, NTT DATA, TCS and Tech Mahindra, expressed interest in exploring investment opportunities and establishing global service support and development centres in the proposed Telecom Manufacturing Zone.
India’s three private telecom service providers – Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea – also welcomed the initiative and said they would encourage their vendor ecosystems to explore manufacturing and supply chain opportunities within the zone.
During the strategic discussions, Scindia also invited global investors to participate in the India Mobile Congress 2026, scheduled to be held from October 7 to 10 at Yashobhoomi in New Delhi.
The Telecom Manufacturing Zone is being developed on a 170-acre plug-and-play industrial cluster in Gwalior for telecom manufacturing, research and development, innovation, mobile devices, optical fibre, telecom equipment and next-generation 5G and 6G technologies. Under the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding between the Centre and the Madhya Pradesh government, the Union Government will provide 100 per cent funding of ₹493 crore for Phase I, while the state government has allotted approximately 170 acres of land free of cost along with a range of investor incentives.
The initiative is expected to strengthen India’s position as a global telecom manufacturing and innovation hub while advancing the country’s vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat through increased domestic production, exports, technological innovation and employment generation.
