Indian handset vendors Lava and Celkon have announced that they will be investing heavily in their domestic operations. Lava — the fifth largest vendor in the country by market share — will be investing around ₹200 crore ($30 million) over the next year and a half in an effort to double its headcount in the design, testing and R&D teams.
Lava has already pledged ₹2,650 crores ($4 billion) over the next seven years toward establishing two manufacturing facilities in India as the vendor looks to reduce its reliance on China. The manufacturing plant will be able to churn out 18 million handsets a month once its operational. From Lava founder Hari Om Rai:
We will bring the entire manufacturing ecosystem to India. Our plan is to expand exporting to other countries next year and hopefully, by 2019, we will export to China itself.
Meanwhile, Celkon will be investing ₹250 crores ($38 million) in manufacturing facilities in Hyderabad and Tirupati, which will produce mobile phones and tablets. The vendor currently sells around 550,000 phones a month, with more than half of the production handled by the Hyderabad facility.
Celkon will also be targeting affordable 4G handsets and tablets that will be available for under ₹10,000 ($150). While India continues to be its main market of focus, Celkon exports to ten countries in Africa.
Source: Economic Times, Livemint