Month: August 2016

LeEco invests $7 million on manufacturing plant in India,Greater Noida

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Post date August 31, 2016
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LeEco invests $7 million on manufacturing plant in India

Aparna Desikan

Within eight months of its launch in India, Chinese technology company LeEco sets up manufacturing facility at Greater Noida. Partnering with Compal Technologies, the company has set up the plant with an investment of $7 million dollars.

| TNN | Aug 31, 2016, 06.11 AM IST

CHENNAI: Within eight months of its launch in India, Chinese technology company LeEco sets up manufacturing facility at Greater Noida. Partnering with Compal Technologies, the company has set up the plant with an investment of $7 million dollars. The plant was inaugurated on Tuesday by Minister of Information Technology Ravishankar Prasad.

“This is our contribution to the Make in India initiative. The facility has a capacity to manufacture 60,000 phones and is planning to expand the assembly lines to a capacity of 2 lakh phones by December,” said Atul Jain, COO, smart electronics business, LeEco. At present the facility would manufacture Le2 phones, following which the company will look to including other products.

Employing 200 personnel in the plant, the company looks to hire more staff in line with the increase in capacity. “The plant will currently manufacture for India, but we look to making it an export hub. Phones, which are currently imported, would be manufactured in the plant,” said Jain.

The company has sold over 2 lakh phones in the last two months and 10 lakh phones (1 million) – overall in India. LeEco also sells TVs, headphones, speaker, VR headsets, chargers and other mobile accessories.

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Noida is now India’s mobile production hub

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Post date August 26, 2016
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If you unclip the back of your new Samsung smartphone, or one from a homegrown brand like Karbonn, Lava or Intex, you might find a `Made in India’ sticker there. And chances are that the device has been assembled in the Noida-Greater Noida region at Delhi’s doorstep.Ever since the Centre introduced a 10.5% duty differential between imported devices and those made locally in last year’s Budget, the region has become India’s biggest smartphone hub, with a capacity to make more than 140 million devices per annum -40% more than a year’s demand.

Not that Qualcomm and MediaTek are stamping out processors here -all the critical components still come from China and Taiwan -but it is a significant start for the industry . Sources said the local industry does about 5-8% of value addition at present, and this can be scaled up to around 35% within five years.

The flurry of investments to the region was perhaps prompted by the presence of Korean giants Samsung and LG. Samsung, which started local manufacturing a decade ago and reportedly has the highest installed capacity of 40 million devices per annum -the company did not confirm it -seeded a significant number of smartphone com ponent suppliers in the area.The company produces mobile phones from completelyknocked-down (CKD) kits.

“All our mobile phones, from feature phones to the Galaxy S7 that we sell in India, are manufactured at our Noida factory , and we will continue to explore future investment opportunities,“ a spokesperson for Samsung said.

Now Indian brands like Lava, Intex and Karbonn, besides Taiwanese contract manufacturer Wistron, have also set up shop. In partnership with home-grown telecom retailer and manufacturer Optiemus, Wistron makes phones for LG, China’s OnePlus and Oppo, and Taiwan’s HTC. Another Chinese vendor, Water World Technology , has partnered local company UTL Group, which is one of the backers of Karbonn Mobiles. Each factory creates 3,000-4,000 direct jobs, employing mostly high-school or ITI graduates.

Proximity to Delhi, where most home-grown phone brands are headquartered, has certainly helped the region bloom despite UP’s iffy image as a business destination. “The promoters wanted operations in a region that remains within their reach and under their control,“ said Narendra Bansal, chairman of Intex Technologies, a major Indian phone brand.

“Noida’s proximity to the capital, its growing infrastructure, and development as a large residential hub close to the capital’s business districts also helped,“ the Samsung spokesperson said.

Intex, which has three factories in Noida with an annual installed capacity of 30 million phones (feature and smart), is now setting up a 20-acre base at Kasna in Greater Noida for a larger integrated facility that will also house key suppliers. “There are huge advantages here in terms of the cost and availability of labour. The power supply is largely uninterrupted and the productivity levels are even better than China’s in many cases,“ said Sunil Vachani of Dixon Technologies whose company makes Karbonn and Panasonic devices in a joint venture. But is it easy to do business in UP? “The benefits may be less than in states like Andhra Pradesh, which offer incentives. However, operating in the south is difficult for a north-Indian brand. Moreover, the UP administration is supportive,“ Vachani added.

Lava managing director Hari Om Rai said availability of land in the Noida-Greater Noida industrial area has also been an important enabler. “There may be a few instances of difficulty in getting approvals, but the broader policies are clear,“ said Rai whose company has an annual installed capacity of nearly 36 million devices. “We have not faced interventions by the government.“

Now, even Chinese vendors and suppliers are gravitating to the region, drawn by its large production capacities. The manufacturing processes are still low-end, with a lot of assembly done manually , but efforts to increase local engagement and add sophisticated processes, such as the assembly of printed circuit boards (PCB), are on.

Analysts said PCB assembly will enhance the quality of local manufacturing. Also, there are efforts to develop R&D and design capabilities within the country , instead of relying on partners in China and Taiwan. “It will take at least 5-7 years to develop a high valueadd manufacturing set-up here,“ said Pardeep Jain, MD of Karbonn Mobiles.

IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said more initiatives are planned to boost the manufacturing of electronics.“Electronics manufacturing is a focus of the government as part of the `Make in India’ initiative. The current investments have resulted in as many as 40,000 direct jobs and over 1.2 lakh indirect employment. We estimate that mobile phone production will reach a level of around 500 million devices by 201920.“

For now, uncertainty over the fate of the 10.5% duty differential in a GST regime is worrying investors, even though they have welcomed the simpler tax structure a GST will bring. “It will be near-suicidal to make fresh investments until GST is described,“ Jain said. “We do not want to gamble in such an uncertain scenario,“ Vachani added.

Minister Prasad said concerns around GST would be addressed.“Please remember, GST is for India.Surely , in the whole fiscal architecture we will ensure that Indian manufacturing interests are saved.“

Asked if the duty differential between local manufacturing and imports will be maintained, he said, “Obviously , why not… the interest of India’s manufacturers will be kept in mind.“

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DMIC township work reviewed, 12% complete

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Post date August 23, 2016
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Greater Noida: The Rs 600-crore Integrated Industrial Township in Greater Noida under the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), for which land is being developed by Shapoorji Pallonji, is on track with IIT-Delhi’s approval of its infrastructural design.

The secretary, department of industrial policy and promotion under the Union ministry of commerce, Ramesh Abhishek, and Alkesh Kumar Sharma, chief executive officer and managing director, DMIC, on Saturday conducted a site visit of the project, which is under construction. Satisfied with the physical progress of the township, officials told TOI that infrastructure design services of the project have been vetted by IIT-Delhi.

According to officials of the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA), officials conducted a detailed inspection of the site besides reviewing the design phase of the project, which is now complete. “Since the design phase, which is critical, is mostly on paper, so far the project has completed only about 12%,” said Deepak Agarwal, CEO, GNIDA. “However, work has started on the ground and now the project will move ahead at a fast pace. By October-November we plan to open sale of plots in the area,” he told TOI.
Officials said IIT-Delhi has approved the design for infrastructure services including roads, sewerage, drainage, water supply, etc. “Design for the bridge, solid waste management is likely to be approved next week,” said K K Singh, officer on special duty (OSD – projects), GNIDA. “Currently, earth filling work is being carried out. We have to fill about 8 lakh cubic metres of earth. Our target is to put roads in place in the next four months so that future investors can approach their plots,” he said.

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Good for the new areaVandana Keelor

Sprawling across nearly 335 hectares of land, the township will be located in the Dadri-Noida-Ghaziabad investment region of the corridor
Officials said that the township would be located in Ecotech 11A in Greater Noida. Its boundaries include Ghodi Bacheda village, Maicha village, Howrah railway line and the Eastern Peripheral Expressway.

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Greater Noida heliport set to take off, NOC likely next week

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Post date August 12, 2016
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GREATER NOIDA: The ambitious heliport project of Greater Noida, hanging fire for several years, is raring for the takeoff. A team of aviation experts from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), along with RITES, the project’s technical consultant, and officials of GNIDA conducted a site inspection of the proposed project on Thursday. While the team seemed satisfied with the site for the heliport, a formal approval and NOC for the project could come within a week.

GNIDA officials said, a formal application seeking clearance for the proposed project was submitted to DGCA in June this year. “Once we have the NOC from DGCA, we will invite a Request for Proposal from technically qualified consultants to put the project in place,” said Deepak Agarwal, CEO, GNIDA. “All other modalities and logistics have been worked out and are in place for the project. This is a step forward for the project, which is on the UP CM’s list of priorities,” he said.
Agarwal further said that GNIDA was also proceeding with getting an Environment Impact Assessment done for the project. “We are also addressing a public hearing by Pollution Control Board in setting up the project so that we can get the board’s clearance, too,” he explained.
The Rs 50-crore heliport is proposed to be constructed on a 22-acre open area in Safipur village, located along the Noida-Greater Noida expressway near the Gautam Budh University. A detailed project report for the heliport has already been approved, along with an NOC from the UP irrigation department. An additional 15-acre land has also been reserved for future expansion of the aviation project,” said Agarwal.

“The project will be developed on PPP model. Once the work on the project commences, it will be in place two years after construction starts,” he explained.

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Bennett University opens in G Noida ,another landmark near us

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Post date August 12, 2016
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Education for our times: Bennett varsity begins academic session – Times of India

NEW DELHI: One crosses many landmarks in the course of a 177-year journey. Even so, August 8, 2016 marked an important milestone for the Times Group as the first academic session of

BACKGROUND

At Bennett varsity, get the best of both worlds

New Delhi: The students of Bennett University will get a taste of how things are done at some of the best institutions in the world. To deliver the “world-class” education it envisions, BU has collaborated with Georgia Institute of Technology, Babson College, Wharton School of Business and MOOC platform, EdX. Georgia Tech – as the US school is popularly called – will help design and deliver the engineering curriculum. BU (letter of intent issued by the government of UP, subject to legislative approval) will collaborate with the school also on two centres of excellence, and students will get to interact with visiting faculty. The courses being planned are computer science engineering, electronics and communication engineering and mechanical engineering.

“Technical education in India has scaled multi-fold over the last decade without over 10,000 engineering colleges producing 1.5 million engineering graduates every year. Unfortunately, the quality of education is continuously deteriorating with only 20-25% of these graduates being employable. Our partnership with Georgia Institute of Technology will bring international standards to the Indian engineering curriculum,” says BU vice-chancellor Yaj Medury.

Engineering students who are interested in striking out on their own will get a chance to polish their skills at Babson College. They will get to attend a two-week residential programme – BU’s calling it the “Startup Boot-camp” – at Babson’s Boston campus. “Students will work with faculty and students from over 10 countries to develop their entrepreneurship skills,” says a BU statement. It will also be the founding member of the “Babson Collaborative”.

For management students, BU has tied up with Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. They will get a week’s “immersion” programme, run by Wharton Executive Education. Students will also study two credit courses in strategy and marketing for which they will get a certificate from Wharton. About 10% of the first-year management course will be done at Wharton.

For the rest, there are massively open online courses. BU is collaborating with EdX “to address the varied interests of students.” EdX – one of the most popular MOOC platforms in the world founded by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology – will be the main providers of MOOCs a part of the “blended curriculum”. “EdX will also help BU create and host courses, which will enable training for faculty and staff, as well as provide access to relevant infrastructure and features (such as Private Cohorts) that enable them,” says the statement.

Highlights

UP governor Ram Naik on Sunday cleared an ordinance for setting up of Bennett University, promoted by The Times of India Group
The university, set up in Greater Noida, will have 13,500 students and 750 faculty at full strength
Bennett University has tied up with several renowned international institutions

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik on Sunday cleared an ordinance for setting up of Bennett University, promoted by The Times of India Group.

The Bennett University, Greater Noida Uttar Pradesh Ordinance 2016, had been sent for the governor’s approval on Saturday after the Uttar Pradesh cabinet cleared it by circulation.

“The Uttar Pradesh government is keen to invite eminent institutions and groups to set up educational skill-based institutions in the state so that youth get better education, which will open up opportunities for jobs. We have made policies to that effect. The coming of Bennett University to Uttar Pradesh is a welcome step in this direction,” said Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.

UP’s higher education secretary Jitendra Kumar said, “Setting up Bennett University, which is of international standard, is a landmark in the state’s higher education scenario. It’s collaboration with foreign institutions will bring in quality education to Uttar Pradesh.”

The university, set up in Greater Noida, will have 13,500 students and 750 faculty at full strength, of which 300 students will begin their BTech and MBA courses in the 2016-17 session.

Bennett University has tied up with several renowned international institutions.These include Georgia Institute of Technology (US), which will partner it in designing and delivering a worldclass engineering curriculum, and edX–set up by Harvard and MIT–which will provide massive online open courses (MOOCs). Bennett and edX will also explore and test innovative approaches to learning, and support and train the faculty to create and offer next-generation online and blended learning courses.

In addition, Bennett University is also a founding member of The Babson Collaborative, launched by the US-based Babson College, globally recognised for its leadership in entrepreneurship education. The partnership will set up the Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship and “The Hatchery” –an incubator for startups–on the Bennett campus.