- Title: Smartphones emerge as bright spot for Indian manufacturing
- Date: 25th October 2018
- Summary: A WORKER CHECKING AUDIO OF THE PHONES PACKAGING LINE A WORKER PACKING MOBILE PHONES INTO CARDBOARD BOXES, AGARWAL LOOKING ON WORKER SCANNING PACKED GOODS (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHIEF MANUFACTURING OFFICER, LAVA, SANJEEV AGARWAL, SAYING: "What I see in future is we will become a global brand, we will have bigger market share globally, in India also and globally also." NEW DELHI, INDIA (OCTOBER 22, 2018) (REUTERS) BUILDING LETTERS READING (English): 'APSC' PAN OF WORKERS SITTING AND WORKING BATTERIES LINED UP, A FACTORY WORKER WORKING WITH AN AUTO BATTERY TAB WELDING MACHINE CLOSE OF AUTO BATTERY TAB WELDING MACHINE WORKERS SEATED AND WORKING A WORKER OVERLOOKING AN AUTOMATIC MACHINE A MACHINE PICKING AND DROPPING BATTERIES (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR OF A BATTERY FACTORY, APSC ELECTRONICS PRIVATE LIMITED, FRANK WANG, SAYING: "In this factory, we have employed around 800 people and if we set up a new factory we are to employ 2,000 people." NEW DELHI, INDIA (OCTOBER 22, 2018) (REUTERS) PEOPLE PASSING BY WHILE SPEAKING ON THEIR MOBILE PHONES A GROUP OF PEOPLE TAKING A SELFIE, A MAN SPEAKING ON HIS MOBILE PHONE CLOSE OF MAN SPEAKING ON HIS MOBILE PHONE A MAN SPEAKING ON HIS MOBILE PHONE, ANOTHER LOOKING INTO HIS MOBILE PHONE TWO WOMEN ON A VIDEO CALL PEOPLE SPEAKING ON THEIR MOBILE PHONES NEW DELHI, INDIA (OCTOBER 22, 2018) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT, INDIAN CELLULAR ASSOCIATION, PANKAJ MOHINDROO, SAYING: "We plan to be 40 percent of the world's production in the next decade. When we touch 500 million, we will be approximately 22-24 percent of the world production, which is March 2020."
- Embargoed: 8th November 2018 10:57
- Keywords: employment Smartphones technology Oppo Samsung Indians Lava feature phones Make in India South Korea job opportunities
- Location: NEW DELHI/NOIDA, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA
- City: NEW DELHI/NOIDA, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA
- Country: India
- Topics: Company News Markets,Economic Events
- Reuters ID: LVA00393KCN67
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT IS IN HIGH DEFINITION
Smartphone-maker Lava is a small player in India's booming mobile communications industry, but it has become a poster child for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious effort to make India a global hub for electronics manufacturing.
Just a few years ago, Lava imported cheap phones from China. Now it builds its own devices at two factories on the outskirts of New Delhi that employ about 3,500 people, and expansion plans are in the works.
Modi's vow to create tens of millions of new jobs has stuttered on many fronts, but domestic smartphone production has emerged as a bright spot for Asia's third-largest economy.
The Indian industry's emergence is especially visible in Noida, where Lava is based. Once a suburb for tech outsourcing firms, Noida is now bursting with companies making everything from headphones and chargers to high-end smartphones.
Sanjeev Agarwal, Lava's head of manufacturing, says local production is helping it reduce costs and build high-quality devices that can sell for less than $150. Much of the company's product design is still done in China, Agarwal said, but the company plans to bring that work to India over the next few years.
Along with local firms such as Lava, global smartphone giants including Samsung, Oppo and Xiaomi are expanding rapidly in India, and starting to bring along components suppliers while driving contract manufacturers like Foxconn to ramp up.
More than 120 new manufacturing units have created about 450,000 jobs in the mobile phone industry over the past four years, according to the Indian Cellular and Electronics Association, thanks largely to the 'Make In India' campaign and a phased plan featuring stiff duties on imported devices and parts.
That growth has made India the world's second-biggest mobile phone maker and positioned it for further growth as trade tensions and rising costs hobble China's world-leading electronics manufacturing sector.
Modi's so-called phased manufacturing plan, introduced in 2016, aims to take advantage of India's huge domestic smartphone market to promote local production. India has more than a billion wireless subscribers, and about 380 million of them do not yet have a smartphone.
The manufacturing plan includes import duties not only on phones, but also on accessories such as phone chargers, batteries and headphones, as well as components including pre-assembled printed circuit boards. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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