Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' campaign gets a huge facelift as Xiaomi unveils first 'Made in India' smartphone

In a move to capture a big share of the smartphone market in India, Chinese smartphone player, Xiaomi announced its first manufacturing unit in Sri City in Andhra Pradesh.

At the same event, the firm also launched the Redmi 2 Prime, its first ‘Made in India smartphone at a price of Rs 6,999. The firm has collaborated with Foxconn for this facility, and aims to manufacture all its smartphones in India for catering to the domestic demand in the country.

What's heartening is that Xiaomi began its talks with the Andhra Pradesh Government in February, and in just six months, the firm is starting to sell the Redmi 2 Prime smartphone. Comparatively, the firm said that for a similar manufacturing facility in Brazil, it took the firm three times more the time to start manufacturing in Brazil than in India.

Xiaomi's top leadership was extremely impressed at the pace and speed of execution. Global VP, Hugo Barra, said that the government at the center and the state was moving like a startup and it was amazing to see the speed of execution.

Currently, majority of components are still imported, and the phone will be assembled in Sri City, as India still does not have the ecosystem of component suppliers.

More recently, Foxconn pledged $5 billion over 5 years for setting up an electronics manufacturing facility in Maharashtra.

Two big announcements in less than 3 days. It remains to be seen if this initial trickle will lead to a flood?