Xiaomi's Hugo Barra Drops Hints About Expanding To India

Xiaomi Vice President of International operations Hugo Barra just greeted everyone on Twitter, “Good morning Vizag! Xiaomi is about to take a giant leap forward in India.”

With a photo in front of a very large sign saying “MI Welcomes You To Visakhapatnam” and a “Make In India” decal set on a lion at the top-right corner of the billboard, Hugo Barra announces the rather explicit hint to expand operations into India.

Rumors are speculating that Xiaomi is building a manufacturing factory in Andhra Pradesh. These moves are indicative of the tech sector’s support of the “Make in India” initiative pioneered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As a potential market, India was reported to have moved 19.5 million smartphone units in the March 2015 quarter alone. This is reportedly a strong indicator of the potential profitability of the region as an emerging mobile device market.

Xiaomi has not affirmed nor debunked the speculations of its setting up a manufacturing plant in the Central Asian country, but if the clues are read correctly, it may be a definite “Yes,” Xiaomi is, indeed, building manufacturing hubs in India, soon.

Xiaomi has aggressively expanded its operations in the past couple of years, churning out handsets to rival key players and securing a spot in the Top 5 Smartphone manufacturers in the world. It has also secured the top spot in China, and the third, worldwide. With innovative devices such as the Mi line of smartphones, powered by the MIUI fork of the Android, the company has certainly secured a spot among gadget freaks the world over.

The MIUI is a sleek, gorgeous iteration of the Android, a look and feel that even rivals the iOS. It is then understandable how the company managed to edge out the competition in such a short time. Xiaomi was founded in 2010.

As for India, the tech sector has been experiencing a major boom, with a good number of American companies outsourcing their processes into the technically-capable workforce. With these new drives to entice tech companies to put up manufacturing plants in the country, it’s only a matter of time until India powers both software services and hardware production for companies around the globe.

It seems like all tech roads are leading into India, as Xiaomi, Foxconn, Motorola, Gionee, Asus, and even Facebook are making inroads into the country.