Noida, Aug 30 (INB) Electronics contract manufacturer Optiemus Infracom started India’s first factory for making tempered glass which are used for protecting mobile screens.
Optiemus Infracom, Chairman, Ashok Kumar Gupta has announced plans to invest over Rs 800 crore in the production of tempered glass across three units including the one inaugurated by union electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
The company has partnered with US material technology firm Corning for making tempered glass. The tempered glass project of the company is separate from the joint venture unit of Corning and Optiemus, Bharat Innovative Glass (BIG) Technologies, which will make cover glass for mobile phones that come pre-fixed on displays of the handsets.
The minister called Optiemus’ projects a new gem in the country’s roadmap for the electronics manufacturing ecosystem and shared that Corning’s cover glass production is expected to start by the end of current calendar year.
“Optiemus is the new gem in the fast growing electronics manufacturing ecosystem in the country. By the end of this year, production of covered glass from Corning will also commence. Step by step, all the components will be made in India be it mechanical enclosures, be it PCB, memory chips, lens module, cover glass,” Vaishnaw said.
The minister lauded Optiemus work on the production of drones and asked the company to increase its research team headcount by 10 times to 400 from around 40 at present.
“I also liked to know that you have around 40 design engineers, 40 R&D engineers working. You have shown many unique products. There are many drones that work in extreme weather conditions, in extreme altitudes. You have shown many such drones, which come with very heavy payload. Then you are doing research on a new technology, in which even if it is jammed, complete RF jamming, still it can reach its goal. Your research on such drones is very good. You should take it further. I request you to take the research team to 40 to 400,” Vaishnaw said.
Optiemus Infracom Chairman Ashok Kumar Gupta has plans to make an investment of Rs 800 crore in the next 12 months for tempered glass production indigenously which he estimates will create direct and indirect employment for 16,000 people.
The company has invested Rs 70 crore in setting up the first factory with 2.5 crore tempered glass production per annum capacity.
Gupta said that the company will set-up one more unit in Noida and another one in South to scale up total production capacity to 20 crore units per annum with investment of over Rs 800 crore.
