‘With ‘Make in India’, government has pushed the Indian mobile market to a completely new direction’
CEO, Videocon Mobile Phones
On Expansion Plans:
Since its inception, Videocon has traditionally been a manufacturingled group. The group has its local manufacturing units at Aurangabad and Kashipur. In addition to putting in more assembly lines in these two plants, the group is aiming at increasing manufacturing capacity at its plants in Telangana and Tamil Nadu in the coming time, in line with the strategy to have much deeper distribution in the South.
On the Government Role in Manufacturing:
With national initiatives like ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’, the government has already pushed the Indian mobile market to a completely new direction. The new policies like increment in service tax and import duty will help the mobile players in the long run.
Though local manufacturing still lags behind the international markets like China and Taiwan, we can expect from the government to come up with policies, which will help to create an eco-system of manufacturing and technology sharing.
In order for India to become a true global power on the supply side for mobile devices, the government will have to start developing “technology parks” and a favorable investment environment that will encourage hardware, software and ancillary suppliers to build an eco-system and infrastructure to support end-to-end solutions.
Right now, the focus limited to “finishing”. India will have to move up the value chain, as China has started to do so, in all aspects, and not just become a known destination where people leverage cheaper labour for more cost-effective assembly.
On Go-to-Market Strategy:
As Indian mobile market is cluttered with several mobile players and service providers, our focus is to reach out to the consumers who believe in quality and innovation and confide in domestic brands. With understanding of local needs and market response, our go-to-market strategy always follows the consumer-first approach.
With our manufacturing legacy and existing capabilities, as well as focused-market approach, we are very sure that in the coming months, Videocon mobile phones will become a recognized and respected player in the mobile handset space.