37 mobile plants set up in past year in India

Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in the past year 37 new mobile factories have been set up in the country, generating direct employment for 40,000 people and indirect employment for 1.25 lakh people.

“We have decided to make India a big hub of electronic manufacturing. In the last one year, 37 new mobile manufacturing units have come,” the minister said after inaugurating the government-funded Electropreneur Park 

He said that 11 crore mobile phones have been made in the country in last one year compared to six crore earlier. “We have given jobs to 40 thousand people and 1.25 lakh indirect jobs,” Mr. Prasad said.

Besides homegrown firms such as Karbonn, Lava, Micromax and Intex, Chinese handset makers like Gionee and Xiaomi are also making their products in India. 

The Electropreneur Park aims to incubate 50 early stage start-ups and create at least five global companies over a period of 5 years. Set-up in collaboration with academia and industry represented by Indian Electronics and Semiconductor Association, the Electropreneur Park will focus on the creation of Intellectual Property and product development to increase domestic manufacturing of electronics items.

“India imports electronic good of over Rs 3 lakh crore. By 2020 government aims to bring down import to zero. The Electropreneur Park started today is a step in that direction,” Minister of State for IT and Law P P Choudhary said.