The "Lava, Micromax and other homegrown brands" framing gets repeated in a lot of roundups, but the two names don't belong in the same sentence anymore in terms of actual product activity. Here's what each is genuinely doing in 2026, and what's changed in the policy behind the "Make in India" phone push.
Lava: Actually Shipping New Models
Lava is the one homegrown brand still launching phones on a regular cadence, across four active lines:
- Lava Blaze Duo 3 5G (₹16,999–17,434, launched January 2026) — India's first budget dual-screen phone, with a 6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED front display and a 1.6-inch AMOLED panel on the back for notifications and selfie framing. MediaTek Dimensity 7060, 50MP Sony IMX752 camera, 5,000mAh battery with 33W charging.
- Lava Blaze X (₹14,899–14,999) — Dimensity 6300, 64MP camera, AMOLED display, 5,000mAh battery.
- Lava Blaze 3 5G (₹11,499) — Dimensity 6300, the more affordable entry into the Blaze line.
- Lava Agni 3 5G (₹20,999–23,999) — the current flagship of the lineup, with a 6.78-inch 1.5K curved AMOLED display, a secondary rear AMOLED panel, Dimensity 7300X, a 50MP Sony IMX766 camera with OIS, and notably broad 5G band support (including n1, n3, n5, n8, n28, n40, n41, n77, n78) — genuinely useful if you move between regions with different operator band deployments.
- Lava Agni 4 (₹27,999) — the newer top-end model, released late 2025.
- Further down the range, Lava also launched the Bold N1/N2 5G entry-level series, the Yuva Star 3, and — in April 2026 — the Shark 2 5G, alongside two new feature phones (Hero Shakti 2026 and A7 Torch 2026) aimed at non-metro buyers who still want basic 4G/torch functionality over a smartphone.
That's a genuinely active, multi-tier lineup — budget feature phones through a near-₹28,000 flagship — which is more than can be said for most of Lava's traditional homegrown peers right now.
Micromax: The Reality Check
This is the one worth being direct about: Micromax has not launched a new smartphone model in India since the IN 2c in April 2022 — over four years ago. The brand continues to describe itself as committed to "Make in India" manufacturing, and trackers periodically list an "upcoming" Micromax IN Note 3, but that model has been listed as "expected soon" for years without materializing. If you see a 2026 roundup presenting Micromax as an active new-phone player alongside Lava, treat that as outdated framing — what's actually available under the Micromax name right now is old stock of years-old models, not new launches.
The Rest of the Homegrown Field
Karbonn, Intex, and Spice — the other names commonly grouped into this "homegrown comeback" narrative — are described in recent industry reporting (July 2026) as having "either closed shop or are struggling," per a Business Standard piece on India's new mobile manufacturing policy. None of them have a current, actively updated smartphone lineup comparable to Lava's.
Meanwhile, the actual scale story in Indian phone manufacturing isn't homegrown budget brands at all — it's Apple and Samsung. Smartphones became India's single biggest export product by value in 2025, and Apple alone (through contract manufacturers Foxconn, Tata Electronics, and Pegatron) accounted for the large majority of that, with Apple and Samsung together representing around 94% of India's smartphone export value. "Make in India" as a manufacturing success story is now mostly an Apple and Samsung story, not a Lava-and-Micromax one — even though the latter is what most consumer-facing coverage implies.
What Changed in the Policy Itself
The original PLI (Production Linked Incentive) scheme for mobile manufacturing, running since April 2020, officially ended on March 31, 2026. In its place, the Union Cabinet approved a new ₹62,500 crore Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme (MPMS) — sometimes referred to as PLI 2.0 — in mid-July 2026, effective from FY2026-27 through FY2030-31.
The important shift: the new scheme ties incentives more directly to export volumes rather than just domestic production. According to industry sources cited in that same coverage, this works against smaller homegrown brands, which mostly manufacture for the domestic market and have little export volume, while favoring large contract manufacturers already export-oriented (the same firms building iPhones and Galaxy phones for global markets). In other words, the policy environment is moving further away from being a lifeline for brands like Lava, Micromax, or Karbonn specifically, and further toward rewarding scale manufacturing regardless of whose brand name is on the box.
What This Means If You're Buying
- If "homegrown Indian brand" specifically matters to you, Lava is realistically the only option with a current, actively updated lineup across budget, mid-range, and near-premium tiers.
- Don't expect a Micromax comeback phone soon — despite periodic "upcoming model" listings, there's no confirmed new launch as of this writing, and the gap since its last release is now measured in years, not months.
- "Made in India" as a label has become nearly universal, not a differentiator — nearly every phone sold in India today, regardless of parent company nationality, is assembled domestically under some version of the PLI framework. If local assembly is your actual goal (rather than a homegrown brand name specifically), that box is checked by most current phones from Samsung, Motorola, Realme, and others too.
Bottom Line
Of the brands typically named together in "Make in India phone push" coverage, only Lava is genuinely shipping new models regularly in 2026, with a real spread from sub-₹12,000 budget phones to a near-₹28,000 flagship. Micromax's "Make in India" positioning persists in marketing and legacy listings, but not in actual new product launches. And the real growth story behind India's phone manufacturing numbers is Apple and Samsung's export-scale operations, not the homegrown budget brands the phrase usually brings to mind — a distinction worth keeping in mind next time you see this framing repeated.