Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu launched the Xiaomi’s first made in India phone – RedMi 2 Prime here on Monday.
Speaking on the occasion, Naidu described the launch as a great breakthrough for Andhra Pradesh. “Having Xiaomi in AP is a proud moment for us. Xiaomi is being rebranded as MI. They say Mi is Mobile Internet and Mission Impossible. I like Mission Impossible because it shows their grand vision and goals. You have shown that it is possible to bring out a Made in India smartphone within 6 months of our meeting in Beijing,” he said.
Xiaomi is the third largest smartphone-maker in the world after Samsung and Apple, respectively. Xiaomi became the largest smartphone vendor in China in 2014 and at the end of December 2014, Xiaomi became the world’s most valuable technology start-up, valued at $ 46 billion.
Naidu expressed confidence that India would become a pioneer in Hardware exports. “We can create excellent ecosystem for hardware manufacturing. I’m a strong believer in Technology. I’m ensuring that welfare schemes use technology. That is the best way to serve people. I wish Xiaomi scales to greater heights,” he said.
Xiaomi’s Global Vice-President Hugo Barra said his company was in India as part of the ‘Make in India’ program. “We kicked off our conversations with the Chief Minister in China. Here, we are now. What thought would’ve taken us 2 years, we have done it in 6 months. We have partnered with Foxconn to manufacture our smartphones. We have begun full operations in Sri City SEZ,” he said.
Barra said ‘Make in India’ program allowed the company to cut down on costs and enabled it to better its supply chain. “We can operate here either with little or zero inventory. Manufacturing in India for Xiaomi is a “Just in Time” opportunity. Over a period of time, every single phone Xiaomi sells in India will be made in India,” he said.
DIPP Secretary Amitabh Kanth said that the future of Xiaomi was in India. “India has been the back office and China a factory. This is gradually changing now. Make In India has identified 25 sectors. We want to make AP an electronics hub,” he said. (INN)