Recap 2015: 'Make in India' Brand Modi draws bigwigs

The well-publicized ‘Make in India’ program, for which no less than prime minister Narendra Modi himself campaigned across the world, started delivering results for the telecom sector in a big way during the year.

The most significant of all announcements came from Foxconn, which signed a pact with the Maharashtra government to invest $5 billion over five years towards new manufacturing facilities. The company was also exploring sites outside of Maharashtra and in fact started manufacturing phone units at its Sri City plant in Andhra Pradesh as early as July.

A number of other mobile phone companies were also quick enough to respond to the ‘Make in India’ call and announcements to the effect kept flowing in through the year. Homegrown Intex Technologies said it was looking to invest around Rs 1,500 crore in manufacturing and research facilities locally over a period of two to three years. Three other homegrown players Micromax, Karbonn and Celkon reportedly signed agreements to set up units at a cluster near Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh for an investment totaling Rs 750 crore. For Micromax, the Tirupati unit would be its third after the one in Uttarakhand and another upcoming one near Hyderabad. Karbonn also earmarked Rs 800 crore towards local manufacturing capacities over a period of three years. Lava, which has an existing unit at Noida, was reported to be raising $200 million through overseas borrowing to part fund the ramp-up of local manufacturing.

Samsung too looked to set up its third manufacturing plant in the country after its existing units in Noida and Tamil Nadu.

The ‘Make in India’ program has given a huge fillip to various state governments’ efforts to create manufacturing hubs. Sri City is already being touted by Andhra Pradesh as the would-be largest manufacturing hub for mobile phones in the country.

According to an announcement, the government received proposals worth Rs 90,000 crore for local manufacturing of electronics in India within two months during July and August, out of the total proposals of Rs 1.10 lakh crore received in 12 months.

Also Read: Movers & Shakers of Telecom in 2015