Samsung May Shift Major Part of Phone Production to India: Report
Samsung currently has manufacturing units in Vietnam, China among a few other countries.
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Samsung is looking to shift the major part of its manufacturing unit from Vietnam and other countries to India, The Economic Times reported (ET).
The South-Korean electronics giant will produce devices worth $40 billion (3 lakh crore approx) over the next 5 years in India under the Indian government’s Production Linked Incentive (PIL) scheme.
“Samsung is mulling diversifying its production lines to make smartphones in India under the government’s PLI scheme which will impact its current capabilities in countries such as Vietnam,” an unnamed source told ET.
How PLI is a Boost For Manufacturers
Vietnam is the second-largest manufacturing hub for Samsung after China. Samsung’s move to India would not only create more job opportunities but also establish India as the global manufacturing base it’s been vying to become.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology announced the PLI scheme on 1 April 2020. Under this scheme, a series of production incentives are being offered to local manufacturing units and at the same time attracting foreign manufacturers for assembly, testing, marking and packaging of products.
As of 1 August, as many as 22 companies like Foxconn, Rising Star, Samsung, Wistron, and Pegatron have registered for the PLI scheme. This also includes local manufacturers such as Lava, Dixon Technologies, Bhagwati (Micromax) and Optiemus Electronics who made BlackBerry devices.
Union Minister for Information Technology and Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad said that these companies will be responsible for producing smartphones and components in India worth Rs 11.5 lakh crores in the coming five years. Of these, products worth Rs 7 lakh crores will be exported.
As per Indian Cellular and Electronics Association, the Indian smartphone market in 2019 was around Rs 1.65 lakh crores and this is expected to be growing in the coming year.
With Apple also planning to move its manufacturing unit from China to India in the coming days, we can expect India to become a mammoth manufacturing hub like China is today.
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