India could be manufacturing hub for mobile handsets: Indian official

With the number of mobile users increasing manifold, India could well become the hub of mobile handsets manufacturing in the near future, a senior official from Indian Communications and Information Technology Ministry said in New Delhi Friday.

Speaking at the Inaugural of the 2nd Mobile Expo 2005 organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the official said that there were about 29 mobile manufacturing companies in the world and he hoped that a majority would start producing handsets in India.

He said that a beginning has already been made by Nokia which will start manufacturing handsets in the first half of next year and Ericsson which has also announced plans to start infrastructure manufacturing its sets in Jaipur in northwest India.

Exuding confidence at the progress in the mobile sector, he said that there were already 110 million mobile users in the country and a target of 200 million mobile users has been set for the year 2007.

Talking about the novel features being introduced by mobile companies to increase their utility, the official said that one- third of the mobile users in India today are using their mobiles for gaming purposes.

Source: Xinhua