Xiaomi of China revealed today its ‘Make in India’ plans at a special event in Visakhapatnam, located in Andhra Pradesh, in the presence of Honourable Chief Minister Shri Nara Chandrababu Naidu and Mr. Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).
‘Make in India’ was launched by Shri 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 in India.
Xiaomi had entered India in July 2014 and in just a span of one year, has tasted huge success and to take its journey forward, Xiaomi has partnered with Foxconn Technology Group, which incidentally also manufacture iPhones for Apple in Taiwan, to manufacture its smartphones in India. The factory is based in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh. The choice of location is strategic as Andhra Pradesh is known to have highly skilled technical manpower, an enterprising population and a dynamic emerging leadership – a combination of factors that make the state appealing to high-growth technological companies such as Xiaomi.
On this occasion, Xiaomi has launched Redmi 2 Prime, which is assembled in India. The Redmi 2 Prime is an enhanced version of Redmi 2 with 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage. This will be available for Rs. 6,999 on Mi.com and other partner sites (Flipkart, Amazon, and Snapdeal) starting August 10.
The Redmi 2 Prime is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 64-bit processor. It has 4G Dual SIM support, and feturres a 4.7 inch HD display.
Foxconn has already started producing Redmi 2 Prime at their Sri City factory in Andhra Pradesh and all the Redmi 2 Prime smartphones will come from this facility.
Speaking about this initiative, Hugo Barra, Vice President, Xiaomi Global said: “Manufacturing smartphones locally is a significant step towards incorporating Xiaomi into the fabric of India in the years to come. Thanks to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s visionary plan to transform India into an attractive destination for manufacturing, we have a great opportunity to make our products in India, bringing us even closer to Indian consumers and contributing to India’s evolution in the technology sector. After taking into consideration several factors, manufacturing in Andhra Pradesh was an obvious choice for us. This has been possible due to the support of Chief Minister Shri Nara Chandrababu Naidu and his forward thinking policies, as well as Mr. Ashok K Kantha, the Ambassador of India to China, who played a key role in helping us to forge links with Andhra Pradesh.”
