Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Moon Jae-in inaugurated the 'world's biggest mobile manufacturing unit' by Samsung on Monday.
The factory will now manufacture over 120 million smartphones- ranging from their sub-USD 100 variants to their flagship S9 model- which is almost double their existing capacity of 67 million units. 70 percent of the smartphones will be earmarked for domestic usage, while the remaining will be exported to countries in Europe, West Asia and Africa.
Last year, Samsung announced their plan to invest Rs 4,915 crore in expanding the Noida facility which began its operations in 1995. The new unit is spread across 35 acres, adjacent to the current facility in Sector 81, Noida.
During the inauguration, PM Modi announced that the new facility would create an additional 1,000 job opportunities over the 70,000 people Samsung already has on its payroll.
At present, India attributes to 10 percent of the overall production capacity of Samsung. Through this plant, the South Korean conglomerate aims to take it to 50 percent over the next three years. They also expect an increase in smartphone users from 299 million in 2017 to 340 million by the end of the year.
Last year, India overtook the US to become the second-largest smartphone market after China accounting for 10 percent of global smartphone sales. (Picture Credits: Reuters; BJP Twitter handle; Ministry of External Affairs)
