India's first tempered glass manufacturing facility inaugurated

Noida, Aug 30 (IANS) Union Electronics and IT Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, on Saturday inaugurated the nation's first tempered glass manufacturing plant here which is a joint venture of Optiemus Infracom, an Indian electronic products manufacturer, and Corning, the world’s leading innovator in materials science.

“We are pleased to see the partnership between Optiemus and Corning, and the commencement of production today. The overall ecosystem for components is developing rapidly in India. Over the last 11 years, electronics manufacturing has grown sixfold, and today it is around Rs 11.5 lakh crore industry, with exports of around Rs 3.5 lakh crore; an impressive achievement and a testament to the prime minister Narendra Modi's vision," Vaishnaw said.

"We plan to manufacture every component used in mobile devices right here in India in the near future," the minister said, adding that "we also encourage research and development to take place in India and are working toward becoming a global player".

Just as the tempered glass manufacturing plant has begun operations, we will soon see ‘made in India’ chips as well. The electronics manufacturing industry is shaping up well and currently generates approximately 25 lakh jobs, the minister further stated.

With an initial investment of Rs 70 crore, the facility will feature state-of-the-art infrastructure that will enable the complete transformation of raw materials into excellent-quality tempered glass, Optiemus Infracom said.

Phase 1 will have an installed capacity of 25 million units per annum, generating direct employment for over 600 people.

"In phase 2, Optiemus will scale up capacity to 200 million units per annum for local and global markets, with an additional investment of Rs 800 crore – creating over 4,500 direct job opportunities," the company said.

The tempered glass market in India is estimated to be over 500 million pieces with a retail value of approximately Rs 20,000 crore.

“This is a landmark moment for the Indian electronics manufacturing industry and the 'Make in India' vision. Despite being one of the world’s largest mobile phone markets, India has relied on imports for tempered glass," said Ashok Kumar Gupta, Chairman, Optiemus Infracom.

---IANS

aps/na