Latest Redmi phone from Xiaomi is made in India, mostly by women

26th March 2017
Latest Redmi phone from Xiaomi is made in India, mostly by women
Redmi 4A phone (inset) being assembled in the Xiaomi line of the Foxconn plant in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh

The latest entry-level smartphone  is entirely made by women in Andhra Pradesh
From Vishnu Anand in Delhi
March 27 2017: While Make in India as a slogan has been  around for many months, we have seen very few instances where real innovation or product development has actually resulted in consumers getting good devices at competitive prices. Rather than creating devices outside and shipping them into India, it obviously makes sense to manufacture in India as long as companies are willing to pass on the cost savings to you and me.  Chinese smartphone player  Xiaomi   has just announced a  second manufacturing plant ( partnering with Foxconn) in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh,  that has the capacity to churn out one phone per second. Of the 5000 employees of this plant, 90 percent  are women. This means that an almost all-women crew is creating low cost devices for India,   in India.
The device  is the Redmi 4A, which comes with a 5 inches HD screen, with 4G dual SIM VoLTE support, powered by the Snapdragon 425 quad core processor. The device  has a 2GB RAM +16GB  storage  configuration, expandable to 128GB. With a 13MP rear and 5MP front cameras,  it has incorporated two selfie ‘beautify’ modes – Smart and Pro. With an 8.5mm frame that houses a 3120 mAh battery, the 4A comes in three colours – dark grey, gold and rose gold. The device feels extremely light and it is a breeze to operate it, even with a single hand. With the 4A, Xiaomi continues the tradition of incorporating India-specific and innovative features like automatic OTP copying, SMS tagging with logos of brands for easy access and frills like India-specific wallpapers and themes. Most of these features are part of the MIUI 8 user interface. At Rs. 5,999, the 4A is an impressive combo of battery performance, sleek design and a good camera – the three things that the millennial Indian seeks from an affordable smartphone. The device is currently available on Amazon and mi.com