AtmaNirbhar Bharat: Micromax announces comeback to smartphone market, vows to learn from past mistakes

Micromax on Friday announced its comeback to Indian smartphone market with an all new line up of smartphones. In a video posted on its social media platforms, Micromax co-founder Rahul Sharma announced company’s re-entry in the smartphone space. Sharma not only unveiled the ‘iN’ series at the end of the video but also shared company’s journey in its first inning.  

Sharma said that Micromax had grown at a fast space and was among world’s top 10 manufacturers at one point. Then, it lost to Chinese smartphone manufacturers. He said that when PM Narendra Modi asked the country to be self-reliant and gave a push to Vocal for Local, Micromax also found a new purpose.  

Sharma said that the company will learn from the past mistakes and launch new products in India. However, details about the first Micromax smartphone under the “In” branding are currently unknown. Sharma also did not reveal the estimated launch date of the smartphone in India. 

The company has also confirmed to invest Rs 500 crore on expanding local manufacturing and research and development (R&D) operations as it prepares a comeback plan in India's smartphone market. 

“The new PLI scheme balances out foreign and Indian players. The support of 6 percent is big and with the government support, we will be able to fight Chinese brands fiercely on the pricing front," Sharma had said, adding that internal accruals are good for the plan and the company will raise money at the right time.  

Micromax last launched iOne Note smartphone back in October 2019 and now the company wants to make a comeback and compete with the Chinese mobile makers like Xiaomi, Realme, Oppo and Vivo. 

Earlier also, Micromax teased to make a comeback with hashtags #MadeByIndian and #MadeForIndian in its previous tweets to support the boycott products by Chinese companies in India. Other tweets also carried  #AtmaNirbharBharat #JoinTheRevolution and #IndependenceDay hashtags to support the AtmaNirbhar initiative by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.