“We are committed to make India a great manufacturing nation”, Kant said.
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On choosing Sri City, Barra said Xiaomi had discussions with Andhra chief minister when he had visited Beijing, while at the same time, Foxconn was also in talks with him.
“Make in India” was launched by Narendra Modi in September 2014 as a major national programme designed to facilitate investment, foster innovation, enhance skill development, protect intellectual property and build best-in-class manufacturing infrastructure.
Naidu added that he’s “upbeat about Xiaomi’s success” in India as it battles global rivals like Samsung and Apple, as well as homegrown brands such as Micromax.
“This is hugely important for us”, Barra said. Further, India is the largest market for Xiaomi outside of China, according to Kiranjeet Kaur, senior market analyst for IDC Asia.
Hugo Barra, vice president, Xiaomi Global said, “After taking into consideration several factors, manufacturing in Andhra Pradesh was an obvious choice for us”.
The assembly line marks a return for Foxconn, officially known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, to the Indian market. Xiaomi, whose CEO is China billionaire Lei Jun, began selling phones in India in July previous year.
The company has no immediate plans for exporting the devices made in India, said Manu Kumar Jain, the head of Xiaomi Technology India Pvt. “It was more from the perspective of building products for India rather other benefits”.
Indian manufacturing base will offer cheap labor and easy access to fast growing smartphone market in India to Xiaomi.
Indian consumers can purchase the new Redmi 2 Prime direct from mi.com from today. It has teamed up with Redington to expand pan-India presence recently. Xiaomi has exclusively partnered with Foxconn for this facility and going forward it aims to manufacture all of its smartphones to cater to the demand in the country.
The Xiaomi Redmi 2 Prime has a 4.7 inch display with high definition resolution and Asahi Dragontrail glass.
The Chinese firm started manufacturing the phones at a facility of Foxconn through third party manufacturing route at Sir City, a special economic zone in Chittoor district.
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If we had to guess, it would be that Xiaomi will announce their local manufacturing in India in the city of Vishakhapatnam. With a couple of days still to go, we have come across a leak revealing the forthcoming phablet’s price, specifications, and a photo as well.
