Karbonn Mobiles Chairman Sudhir Hasija is encouraged by recent steps by the Centre to promote manufacturing of mobile phones and believes that “some manufacturing will start” in the industry this year.
According to Mr. Hasija, Karbonn too is interested in setting up a unit in the country, in order to have greater control over the whole go-to-market process. No plans, however, have been finalised.
“Currently we get from China and some from Korea and Taiwan also. Now yes, everybody is looking [to manufacture here] because the Central Government is coming out with an electronics clusters policy. The State Government, too, is really inviting… on the mobile side,” he told this correspondent on Friday. Karbonn currently sells around 2. 3 million mobile phones a month, with smartphones making up a quarter of this. “Definitely [we are looking at setting up]. Though right now, it doesn’t make cost-sense. In the long-run… in terms of quality, it makes sense,” Mr. Hasija added.
The number one factor in opening a plant, the Karbonn chief pointed out, was that it would give the smartphone maker a “sense of control.” “I would be able to control shortages and demand of mobile phones better. Time to market will be shorter, which is the real requirement now,” he said.
Local players like Micromax and Karbonn, which are number two and three in the market respectively, primarily import most of their phones. This is changing slowly, with Micromax, for instance, starting to assemble phones at its Uttarkhand plant.
