With over 40% of new mobile manufacturing units being set up in Noida and Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh over the past two years, Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday pitched for development of these cities along the lines of Singapore.
The Union Minister asked UP Industries Minister Satish Mahana to prepare a roadmap to develop the Noida-Greater Noida stretch into a manufacturing hub as a “new Singapore”.
Mobile manufacturing
“Noida has become the first choice for electronic manufacturing, particularly mobile manufacturing. In the past two years, 73 new mobile and mobile components manufacturing units were set up in the country. Of these, 32 came up in Noida,” Mr. Prasad said at a Samsung event.
Almost every mobile phone manufacturer, including Lava and Intex, have their plants in the city. Contract manufacturers like Wistron, which makes phones for firms like LG and HTC, also have operations in Noida.
Samsung announced on Wednesday that it would invest ₹4,195 crore to add capacity to its plant in Noida, where it manufactures smartphones, refrigerators and flat panel televisions. The Korean electronics giant said the investment proposal was approved by the Uttar Pradesh government under its mega policy.
More jobs
Talking to journalists on the sidelines, Mr. Prasad said the expansion of the plant by Samsung will create direct employment for 5,000 people and indirect employment for 15,000 people.
He added that he is “open to the idea of having new policy initiatives” to develop a complete ecosystem for local manufacturing and also encouraging exports from the country.
The Minister said six crore mobile phones were made/assembled in India in 2014-15, going up to 11 crore in 2015-16 and 17.5 crore in 2016-17. The number is likely to touch 22 crore in the current financial year.
Mr. Prasad said he is hopeful of the number going up to 50 crore in the next two to three years.
Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, who was also present, said Samsung hopes to manufacture 100 million mobile phone in India by 2020.
He added that while India currently contributes about 10% of the company’s global production, this contribution is likely to go up to 50% in the next three years.
