India’s smartphone makers are looking for government intervention to enable them to take on the challenge of Chinese handset makers, the Financial Times (FT) reported.
Research company Canalys in January noted Chinese players were edging-out their Indian rivals, due to factors including competitively-priced devices.
According to the FT report Narendra Bansal, chairman and MD of Intex Technologies, called for “anti-dumping duties” on Chinese handsets. Such an order could also be applied to products assembled in India by Chinese companies, in a bid to counter perceived support the Chinese vendors receive from the authorities in Beijing.
Shubhajit Sen, CMO at Micromax, told the newspaper: “The China ecosystem historically came up because of a lot of subsidies and incentives from the Chinese government.”
The Indian government is pursuing a strategy called “Make in India”, intended to transform the emerging market into a global design and manufacturing hub. This resulted in a number of overseas players setting up factories in the country.
Those companies are also spending heavily on marketing and advertising, but their presence, in turn, is resulting in increased competition for India’s homegrown handset makers including Micromax, Intex, Lava and Karbonn.
While the Chinese vendors also benefit from significant volumes in their home and other international markets, Indian vendors have been less successful with their international expansions.
Karbonn founder and MD Pradeep Jain told FT: “The government should do something, otherwise it’s a loss for industry, and a loss for the government also.”
The report said “industry leaders” have already met with the government to discuss their concerns.
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