One of the largest electronics companies of the world, Flex, which manufactures a range of products ranging from a facial derma roller to delivery robots in industrial application, is digging into India’s smart cities project. India’s growing population, says Revathi Advaithi, CEO, Flex, is driving smart cities projects and it is becoming a priority. We, she adds, are looking at this segment as a growth area. “We are helping key customers in developing and providing new solutions to adopt new and advanced technologies like internet of things (IoT), data centres, urban mobility and advanced power solutions to make urban living more efficient and connected.”
Impressed with the government support and progressive reforms in the electronics manufacturing sector in the country, the Flex CEO believes that there has been more progress in the last few years in India in terms of providing the right strategy, minimising approvals and bureaucracy, and providing new incentive schemes.
“The government has also taken several steps towards increasing the ease of doing business and further attracting foreign investments into the country,” says the 54-year-old CEO.
For instance at Flex Chennai Industrial Park (CIP), she adds, they have benefited from both Domestic Tariff Area (DTA) and Special Economic Zone (SEZ) status. By having both DTA and SEZ status, as per Advaithi, the company is able to produce and deliver innovative products for both domestic and export markets, with zero customs duty. As the country is looking at massive scaling in local manufacturing, we are well positioned to serve the domestic market in accelerated growth of the country’s manufacturing sector.
Flex, which has been operating in India since 2001, has a manufacturing footprint of over 1,086K square feet in India. It has a total of three manufacturing sites in the country — two in Tamil Nadu, one in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh. These sites build products for lifestyle, automotive, consumer devices, communications and industrial customers, and they cater to domestic as well as export markets.
High demand for ‘Made in India’
Many of our customers, as per Advaithi, are interested in a ‘Made in India’ strategy to support their growth markets. She has also seen a lot of interest from customers seeking to manufacture complex products in areas such as industrial, automotive and cloud enterprise and communications (CEC) segments in India, due to our advanced design and manufacturing capabilities. “We are seeing growth in India with automotive, particularly around the EV segment,” she adds.
India is among the top 10 strategic markets globally for Flex based on their customers’ preferences and their end-market strategies.
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