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Andhra Pradesh has the potential to become the leading cell phone manufacturing State in the country, and the State government is making all efforts to create the right ecosystem for achieving the target, according to experts.
They expressed the opinion at a session on ‘Making AP the epicentre for electronics in the country’ on Monday, the concluding day of the three-day Confederation of Indian Industry partnership summit.
Pankaj Mohindroo, founder-president of the Indian Cellular Association, said in the competitive index, Andhra Pradesh stood first and “that is why we are aggressively promoting the State. Our target is to make 500 million cell phones in the country, which was thought to be unrealistic at one time. But we are already making 225 million phones and the sector is rapidly growing. AP has the potential to make at least 100-150 million out of the 500 million and emerge the leading player in the country. The State government and we are working towards achieving the objective.”
He said major players such as Foxconn had arrived in the State and many more would follow. “The best is yet to come for AP and India in the field,” he added.
State IT Minister N Lokesh said the State government would create the right ecosystem for the electronics units to come up in the State, right from design to manufacture. “Before 2014, when the present government came to power, there was no cell phone manufacturing in the State. Now out of 10 cell phones made in the country, two are made in AP. We want to take it to five, but the Chief Minister wants to push it up to seven or even eight,” he said.
The Minister said clustering approach was the best to promote electronics and many such clusters would come up in the State.
Josh Foulger, the head of operations, India, of the Foxconn, said the dynamism of the Chief Minister made it possible for the company to start operations quickly at its unit in Sri City SEZ in Chittoor district. He said AP was already the epicentre of cell phone manufacturing in the country.
K Vijayanand, Principal Secretary, Electronics Department, AP, explained the industrial incentives being given by the State government to electronics units.
G Muralikrishna, MD and CEO of Fluentgrid Ltd, a Vizag-based electronics company, said there was a huge market for electronics goods in the country, and import substitution would be possible on a large scale with local manufacture. At a later stage, exports can also be taken up.
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