C-DoT Plans To Manufacture Affordable 3G And 4G Handsets In India Soon!

C-DoT Plans To Manufacture Affordable 3G And 4G Handsets In India Soon!     The recent announcement is in sync with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious Make in India and Digital India programmes.                            Thursday, January 22, 2015:  Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious Make in India and Digital India programmes have seen a strong backing from the state-run Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) as they announced that they are ready to manufacture reasonable 3G and 4G handsets as a part of these projects. C-DoT is mainly focused on offering consultation, development and manufacturing services to the telecom industry. The recent announcement is in sync with Modi's vision to promote domestic manufacturing. In an exclusive conversation with ET, C-DoT director Vipin Tyagi told, they are capable of building 3G and 4G handsets in India and depending upon the chipset a device will range between Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000. Tyagi also added that unnecessary inflation is there in the current market prices. Digital India can be successful only if affordable computing devices are built, as told by Tyagi. He also said that high value-added products can always be produced but if the device cost comes down then it would be more beneficial for development in a country like India. The Centre started the Digital India programme with an initial cost projection of Rs 11.3 million and it aims to empower 1.3 billion Indians digitally with seamless broadband connectivity and affordable mobile devices. As the manufacturing ecosystem is not healthy in the country, India's fast growing smartphone market majorly depends upon imports. While the cheapest 3G smartphone in the country costs around Rs 4000, Lenovo's recently launched 4G LTE smartphone is said to be the cheapest ever at Rs 6,999. Now C-DoT wants to enter this competition market with a new game-plan. India's smartphone market is dominated by big brands like Samsung, Sony, Apple and Nokia/Microsoft, along with Xiaomi, Micromax, Lava and Karbonn. Tyagi said that they have already resumed their manufacturing operations with high hope on Indian engineers.