Chinese inspiration for domestic mobile production

Mobile makers in the country have approached the union government to expedite the process of granting visas to Chinese engineers and technicians required to set up their new units for handset manufacturing, which is crucial for them to meet their production targets under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. Once these Chinese engineers and technicians put together these components and machinery, they can be operated by Indians who would be in a position to take over the entire gamut of commissioning and operations fully over the next two years.

Those players in the industry who have urged the government to fasten this process include the contract manufacturers of Apple like Vistron and Foxcon, Samsung, as well as local mobile device makers like Lava, Macromax, among others. They have also beseeched the government to roll over their first-year production targets to second and third year because the production process was severely affected by stuck supplies of components & travel restrictions due to suspension of international flights to contain COVID-19. However, they have argued that this request is fulfilled only for those manufacturers who have met their investment targets for the first fiscal.