Lava, a homegrown smartphone maker, is making a decision to shift its production from China to India soon. Till now, it used to depend on imports. This is a big step for Lava International, as it is one of the only remaining Indian smartphone companies.
According to a report from ET Telecom, Lava is planning to shift its production line to India in the next six months. The shifting will take advantage of the new Production Linked Incentives (PLI) announced by the Indian government. Lava is expected to invest Rs 80 crore during the transition and about Rs 800 crore over the next five years. The new PLI scheme was announced on April 1 in India for large scale electronics manufacturers.
The scheme will offer a production-linked incentive to boost domestic manufacturing and attract large investments in mobile phone manufacturing and specified electronic components, including Assembly, Testing, Marking and Packaging (ATMP) units, added the report.
In India, the company is likely to start its production in Noida, which is where companies like OnePlus, Oppo, and Reale are already manufacturing their devices. The report also mentions that Lava has recently gained approval to start production at 20% capacity in Noida. Also, about 600 of the 3,500 workforces resumed work from the last week at the plant.
Currently, Lava’s Manufacturing facility in China is outsourced and the R&D centre which is also located in China is owned by the company. Further, the report also says that the company has set up to handle all domestic and export demands centrally from India.
With this, the list of smartphone makers who are manufacturing phones in India under the government’s “Make in India” initiative includes - Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and OnePlus.
Last year, Lava signed a multi-crore deal with General Electronics to produce healthcare devices. Lava along with Micromax has also bagged a deal worth Rs 2,500 crore to manufacture budget smartphone for AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile.
