Micromax to invest ₹500 crore in India

New Delhi: Home-bred handset maker Micromax plans to invest ₹500 crore on expanding local manufacturing and research and development (R&D) operations as it plots a comeback in India's smartphone market, backed by the government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, its top executive said.

Speaking to ET, co-founder Rahul Sharma said that the government's incentives will help the home-bred handset maker compete effectively with Chinese rivals who dominate the market now with over 70% share. Micromax, which at its peak in 2014 rose to No. 2 in smartphones, has practically been wiped out of the market by the Chinese onslaught, which began to take shape in 2016.

"The new PLI scheme balances out foreign and Indian players. The support of 6% is a big support. With the government support, we will be able to fight Chinese brands fiercely on the pricing front," Sharma said. "Internal accruals are good for the plan... I will raise money at the right time."

The co-founder also called for stricter data localisation, saying that merely storing data locally doesn't solve the problem as companies can still use this data to train artificial intelligence and bots in China.