After dragon, Xiaomi to ride on Indian lion
Becomes first China mobile firm to set up plant in India
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-08-11 01:15 GMT
Visakhapatnam: Chinese mobile handset maker Xiaomi will manufacture its handsets for Indians in the country — the first time for a Chinese handset maker to set up its unit in India. On Monday, Xiaomi announced that it will assemble its handsets at Sri City in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, in partnership with Taiwan-based Foxconn.
Foxconn is the brand name of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd, which manufactures mobile handsets of Apple, Samsung, etc. The factory at Sri City will be Xiaomi’s second local manufacturing hub outside China, which coincides with rising manufacturing costs in China and growing market in India for Xiaomi phones.
Though no official investment details were given, the factory is expected to produce 10,000 handsets a day. Xiaomi global vice president, Hugo Barra, said that manufacturing smart phones locally was a significant step towards incorporating Xiaomi into the fabric of India. After launching Xiaomi’s first smartphone made in India — Redmi Prime, AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said that China had reached a saturation point and India was where opportunities were available in all sectors.
He asked electronics and hardware manufacturing companies to come to AP for its better ecosystem and added that the AP government was very keen to promote Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India campaign.
“At present, oil brings a lot of foreign exchange but within four years, that will be replaced by hardware products. Very soon India will become the hub of hardware manufacturing not only for local needs but also for other countries,” he said.
Secretary of the Union department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), Amitabh Kant, suggested that entrepreneurs should choose AP to set up manufacturing units as part of the Make in India campaign since the state had the best ecosystem and a dynamic leadership.
“The future of Xiaomi is in India, not in China. You can grow or expand and become bigger in India and make wealth in India. We are an extremely young country,” Mr Kant said.
Xiaomi head of India operations, Manu Jain, said that every phone sold in India by them would, from now, be manufactured in India.
Andhra Pradesh to go fully online
AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said on Monday that his government would compete with Xiaomi’s creativity and speed, and very soon the state’s governance would go fully online. He said that all government services, development activities and welfare schemes would be delivered and implemented online using real-time data for which the state government had given tablets to 80,000 government field staff.
The CM added that by March 2016, every household in the state would have Internet connectivity with 15-20 mbps speed as plans were afoot to provide fibre optic connectivity using current poles.
“I’m a strong believer in technology. I am ensuring that welfare schemes use technology. That is the best way to serve people. The Union government has agreed to our proposal of fibre optic connectivity to every household,” he added.