Chinese smartphone brands Oppo and Vivo have announced that they will be participating in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative. Both smartphone manufacturers will invest on building manufacturing plants in the country, at an estimated cost of Rs 4,000 crore.
Recently, #BanChineseProducts social media campaign went viral in India. The campaign is considering the new announcement as a victory. However, many smartphone manufacturers have been making similar announcements since the launch of ‘Make In India’ campaign. The new announcements are more likely to be business decisions, and part of PR strategy. Recently, Huawei also set up a huge manufacturing plant in Chennai as part of the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
Still, Indian citizens will benefit from the new initiative. The new investment by Oppo and Vivo is expected to generate at least 1 lakh jobs in India. As per Economic Times, Oppo is said to invest Rs 2,000 crore both directly and indirectly. Its plant will be set up on 200 acres of land, including customized employee accommodation, huge factories. The set up will be similar to the one in China. Vivo will also be allotted 200 acres to build customized manufacturing plants. These would be worth Rs 2,000 crore.
The new Oppo and Vivo manufacturing plants will be set up in Greater Noida. The spaces will be allotted by the government of Uttar Pradesh. The new jobs are expected to extend beyond the blue-collared sector and extend to the white-collared class.
The ‘Make in India’ initiative was launched by the Government of India to encourage multi-national companies to manufacture their products in India. It was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 25 September 2014. Since its launch, the ‘Make in India’ initiative has seen an increase in foreign direct investment, surpassing USA and China. India aims to be an electronic manufacturing hub in near future as the demand for electronic hardware is expected to rise rapidly to US$400 billion by 2020. The Indian government is targeting to achieve net zero imports of electronics by then.