Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi plans to start making its smartphones in India, reports The Times of India. It says Xiaomi is currently on the lookout for partners for this initiative. This will be similar to the company's China model wherein it will design both the hardware & software of the smartphone and partner with companies to assemble the device. In China, Xiaomi works with Foxconn for this purpose. Xiaomi’s VP of International operations Hugo Barra told Bloomberg that production in India will likely begin in a year or two. However he didn't disclose any specific details on where they intend to setup this manufacturing facility. TOI suggests that Xiaomi is exploring Nokia's now defunct Chennai plant as a possible India manufacturing hub. However, Xiaomi’s India GM Manu Kumar Jain told the publication that they haven’t yet looked at Nokia’s Chennai plant. Readers will remember that Nokia had shut down its Chennai plant earlier this month, following the termination of manufacturing contract by Microsoft. Will they finally meet demand? It's worth noting that Xiaomi has been struggling to match the demand for its Mi handsets in the country since its India launch earlier this year. Barra told Bloomberg that they were initially shipping 50,000 devices to India per week which has now shot up to 200,000 devices per week. This exponential growth in demand has meant that Xiaomi had to charter flights four times over the past two months to ensure delivery as per schedule. Xiaomi has chartered a plane to bring Redmi Note units to India. I…
