Homegrown mobile phone maker Celkon has opened its first manufacturing unit in the country, in Telangana, reports IANS. The company claims that currently the unit has the capacity to manufacture 2 lakh phones per month, and that this will be increased to 5 lakh phones per month in the next quarter. The plant also has warehouses for raw materials and finished products. The company informed that about 60% of the phones manufactured at this plant will be feature phones and the remaining 40% will be smartphones. Last month, Chinese smartphone maker OPPO revealed plans of setting up a handset manufacturing unit in India by August to primarily tend to the domestic market. The company also mentioned that some of devices manufactured here will also be exported to overseas markets. OPPO, which entered the Indian market early last year, claims to have sold over 400,000 devices in the country so far. Earlier this month, Taiwanese electronics contract manufacturing company Foxconn informed that it will start making Xiaomi phones in Andhra Pradesh, though it’s not clear when Foxconn plans to start making Xiaomi phones at this factory. This plant is expected to be a small scale unit with a capacity to manufacture about 10,000 phones a day. Apparently, Foxconn plans to set up 10-12 manufacturing units in India, and invest about $2 billion over the next five years. Mobile manufacturing in India The Indian government has been encouraging domestic companies to start manufacturing electronics goods within the country instead of importing them and had approved a…
