At the opening of the Samsung plant today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared India to be the second-largest mobile phone producer in the world, thanks to the ‘Make in India’ initiative his government started four years ago. He was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the “world’s biggest mobile phone factory” in India set up by Samsung Electronics in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The new initiative by the South Korean major is the latest attempt to penetrate deeper into India, the world’s fastest growing mobile phone market.
With the help of the new manufacturing facility, Samsung aims to double its annual mobile phone production capacity from 68 million at present to 120 million units per year once the phase-wise expansion is complete. This means the company wants to manufacture at least 1 crore phones per month by 2020, as part of a road-map to export 30 per cent of mobile phones from India to other markets.
PM Modi said India has around 120 mobile phone manufacturing units scattered around the country, and out of which 50 of them are present in Noida. Till date, Samsung has provided overall employment to 70,000 people, and the new plant will add 1,000 more direct jobs.