A Shot In The Arm: Samsung To Shift Part Of Smartphone Production Unit To India, Make Devices Worth $40 Billion

New Delhi: The South Korean electronics giant Samsung’s thoughts on shifting part of its smartphone production unit to India comes as a shot in the arm for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Vocal For Local’ call.

It has submitted estimates of producing devices worth over $40 billion (Rs 3 lakh crore) in India, in the next five years, The Economic Times reported citing sources, on Monday.

The firm is likely to diversify its production lines to make smartphones under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. While the company currently makes roughly 50 per cent of its phones in Vietnam, it is in the process of winding up manufacturing in South Korea, where labour costs are high.

As per PLI schemes, the electronics company has the potential to get an incentive of around Rs 7,500 crore if it scales up production to worth about Rs 1.5 lakh crore over the next five years. The government expects the programme for electronics alone could lead to $153 billion worth of manufactured goods over the next five years and create about one million jobs directly and indirectly.

Samsung runs its largest mobile phone manufacturing unit in the world in Noida, from where it also exports to other markets. In addition, it has manufacturing bases in Brazil and Indonesia too.