Narendra Modi inaugurates 'world's largest mobile factory' in Noida

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President, Moon Jae-in, jointly inaugurated Samsung's 35-acre plant in Noida today. According to sources, Samsung is expected to manufacture around 12 crore phones a year. The Samsung's new unit is also expected to create employment for more than 5000 people.

The new facility, which has been dubbed the 'world's largest mobile factory', is located in Sector 81, Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Today's launch can be seen as an extension of the 'Make in India' initiative of the Modi government.

One of the first electronics manufacturing facilities set up in the country in the early 1990s, the plant started by manufacturing TVs in 1997. The current mobile phone manufacturing unit was added in 2005.


Speaking on the occasion, Narendra Modi stated that technology has transformed human lives in India. Digital transactions in India has increased manyfold, said
Modi.

Appreciating the role of Korea in technological innovations, he said," Whenever I talk to business community representatives I always mention one thing that I don't think there is a middle class home in India where a Korean product is not found."

He also said that today's launch will help citizens and boost the Make in India initiative.

Samsung factory is key to India-Korea relations, stated Modi. Modi categorically said that the new plant will help firming up India's position in global market.

In June last year, the South Korean giant announced a Rs 4,915 crore investment to expand the Noida plant and, after a year, the new facility is ready to double production.

Not just mobiles, the expansion of the current facility will double Samsung's production capacity of consumer electronics like refrigerators and flat panel televisions, further consolidating the company's leadership in these segments.

Samsung has two manufacturing plants -- in Noida and in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu -- five R&D centres, and one design centre in Noida, employing over 70,000 people and expanding its network to over 1.5 lakh retail outlets.

The company is currently making 67 million smartphones in India and with the new plant being functional, it is expected to manufacture nearly 120 million mobile phones.

Established in 1995, Samsung India laid the foundation stone of Noida plant next year. In 1997, production commenced and the first television was rolled out. In 2003, refrigerator production began.

By 2005, Samsung had become market leader in panel TVs and in 2007, the existing Noida facility started manufacturing mobile phones.

In 2012, Samsung became the leader in mobile phones in the country and the Noida facility rolled out the first-ever "Galaxy S3" device. Today, Samsung is the market leader across mobile segments.

The company currently has over 10 per cent of its overall production in India and aims to take it to 50 per cent over the next three years.