Video: India Confronting China as Next Smartphone Manufacturer

Noida, India: Lava, a smart phone maker, is a small player in India's burgeoning mobile telecommunications sector, but has become a symbolic child of the ambitious efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make money. India a world-clbad manufacturing center of electronic products.

A few years ago, Lava imported cheap phones from China.

The company is currently building its own appliances in two suburban New Delhi factories employing approximately 3,500 people, and plans are underway for expansion.

Indian smartphone production appears as a bright spot for Third Asia Economy https://t.co/9Ly39VzcNQ via @ReutersTV's Technical Reading List pic.twitter.com / NCFge80g1R – Reuters Top News (@Reuters) ] October 27, 2018

Modi's promise to create tens of millions of new jobs has stammered on many fronts, but domestic smartphone production is has become a positive point for the third largest economy in Asia.

With local companies such as Lava and the global smartphone giants, including Samsung, Oppo and Xiaomi, growing rapidly in India, they are beginning to rely on component vendors while pushing contract manufacturers like Foxconn to S & L. # 39; intensify.

More than 120 new manufacturing units were created. created around 450,000 jobs in the Indian Cellular and Electronics Association According to the Indian Cellular and Electronics Association, the mobile sector has experienced in the past four years a large part of its contribution to the campaign "Make In India" and to the implementation Progressive plan providing for rigorous rights on imported devices and parts. [19659002] This growth has made India the world's second-largest maker of mobile phones and positioned it for continued growth, as trade tensions and rising costs impede the development of the manufacturing sector. leading electronics in China.

become a major player in the global supply chain thanks to a very strong national economy, "Vikas Agarwal, Indian director of Chinese smartphone manufacturer OnePlus, told Reuters.

Agarwal added, "We have at least a very good start."

The Indian agency is in full swing. Visible aisle in Noida, where lava is based.

Formerly a suburb of technology outsourcing companies, Noida is full of companies manufacturing headphones, chargers and high-end smartphones.

Sanjeev Agarwal, Manufacturing Manager at Lava, says local production helps him cut costs and build high-quality devices that can sell for less than $ 150.

Agarwal indicated that the company wanted to continue this work in India over the next few years.

The local presence allows for faster innovation, he said, as well as lower prices. free fees.

The lava has great neighbors in Noida. Samsung opened this year what it said was the largest mobile phone plant in the world.

The South Korean giant announced last year that it would spend 49.2 billion rupees ($ 672.45 million) to increase the capacity of the company. mill on three

Not far from the Samsung factory, Chinese Oppo, one of the major players in the smartphone market in India, is also building a huge factory.

Alternative to China

Modi's so-called progressive manufacturing plan, introduced in 2016, aims to take advantage of the huge Indian domestic telephone market

so to promote local applications. production. India has more than one billion wireless subscribers and about 380

million of them have no smartphone yet.

The manufacturing plan includes import rights not only on the phones. but also on accessories such as phone chargers, batteries

and headphones, as well as components including pre-badembled printed circuit boards.

Xiaomi, which competes with Samsung for first place in the Indian smartphone market, many of its phones use Foxconn's facilities in South India, with a total of six installations producing his appliances.

Xiaomi said just as important this year also wants its component suppliers to locate in India, which could bring in up to $ 2.5 billion in investment and create up to 50,000 jobs.

Xiaomi's supplier, Holitech Technology, is committed to investing about $ 200 million in Dia Muralikrishnan B, Xiaomi's general manager for India, announced in a Email that Muralikrishnan B, Xiaomi's general manager for India, would start manufacturing components such as camera and touchscreen modules as well as fingerprint sensors.

According to local authorities, the grand prize for India is to become a full-fledged alternative to China as a hub of manufacturing.

More and more businesses are realizing that they need a "China plus a strategy," said a source. manufacturing industry.

In China, "there is the Trump risk and there are other risks – the currency risks, the risk of global appreciation of wages and so on" , the source "19459010]

" Today, it is the tariff war, tomorrow it may be something else, a natural disaster, "added the source." The question is then: how to use India strategically? "

Samsung announced plans to use its Noida plant as an export center, but it is unclear whether Other manufacturers will follow this example.

To become a true global center for manufacturing high value-added mobile phones, India still needs a political regime more stable and more business-friendly in a country known for its severe regulation and abrupt s industry leaders say.

The country also needs better training of the workforce, said Tarun Pathak, badociate director of the Counterpoint Technologies researcher.

But now we have to look beyond the tasks, "said Pathak.

Muralikrishnan of Xiaomi said that bringing the entire ecosystem of electronics manufacturing in India would be a daunting challenge. He added: "Developing the expertise needed to locally produce flagship products of high-end design would also be a big step for the local industry."

Apple, for example, badembles two low-cost models via Wistron into the South Bengaluru Technology Center. But with weak domestic demand for its high-end phones, the company has resisted pressure from the government to shift more of its work from China.