Andhra Pradesh IT Minister KT Rama Rao and Nadir Patel, High Commissioner of Canada, launched the production facility today.
Meanwhile, IIM Bangalore and Counterpoint Research will release a report on India mobile phone manufacturing industry. The report said more than 180 million mobile phones worth $10 billion will be assembled in India in 2016. This will lead to an estimated of $350 million of value addition from local sourcing perspective in from the domestic assembly of mobile phone in light of the Make in India policies.
DataWind is setting up its second facility with a phased investment of Rs 100 crore. The Hyderabad facility will manufacture 2 million units in the first year, while it can make up to 5 million units when it reaches full capacity. The company will generate employment to around 1,000 people. At present, DataWind has already hired 500 employees.
The Canadian company has a device assembly unit in Amritsar and had in 2013 set-up manufacturing facility for touch panels. DataWind’s first unit in Amritsar manufactures more than one lakh units per month, and almost 20 lakh to date.