At least three Chinese major smartphone companies Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo are currently in talks with Indian manufacturers Lava International Ltd and Dixon Technologies Ltd to produce mobile phones locally for exports across the globe.

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Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo are trying to take advantage of cash incentives readily available to local firms, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. As per the plan, Lava International Ltd and Dixon Technologies India Ltd will assemble the phones on behalf of the Chinese phone makers and export the phones from their plants as early as this year.

The collaboration will be a milestone for the industry that is dominated by Chinese brands. All the three phone makers have already started shifting their production capacity to India. That’s helped the country to become the second-largest manufacturer and assembler of mobile phones by volume.

The Chinese officials are expected to visit the plants of Lava and Dixon soon as the COVID-19 travel restrictions have also been relaxed. However, no official statement has come from Lava, Dixon, Xiaomi and Oppo. A Vivo spokesperson earlier referred to the company’s prior remark that it aimed to ship phones from India by the end of 2022.

The Centre introduced the Production Linked Incentive Program in 2020 in a bid to boost manufacturing/assembling of phones in India. Since then, mobile exports have skyrocketed and are expected to surpass Rs 450 billion this year, a 30-fold jump in five years, according to Livemint.

The program aims to create $150 billion in mobile production in the next five to six years. Apple’s primary suppliers Foxconn Technology Group, Pegatron Corp, and Wistron Corp were among the first to commit to the program, alongside Indian firms Lava and Dixon. Lava is already exporting to the US and Africa while Dixon makes Motorola phones for the US market.

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(Edited by : Thomas Abraham)