Xiaomi India Head and Global Vice President, Manu Kumar Jain has bid farewell to the company. After a nine-year stint with the company, he announced his exit in a Twitter post. Jain joined Xiaomi in 2014 and spearheaded the company’s India operations. Under him, Xiaomi became the number-one smartphone brand in the country even without any advertising campaigns. 

In his farewell statement, Jain proudly spoke about some of the highlights of his tenure at Xiaomi. The company was backed by former Tata Sons Chairman, Ratan Tata and launched Made in India smartphones and smart TVs. Jain was a Managing Director of Xiaomi India from 2014 to 2017. He was promoted to Global Vice President of the company in July 2021. Under the executive’s leadership, the brand achieved significant growth in sales as well as entered various price segments in the country. Additionally, Xiaomi also led the smartphone market in India for nearly five years until the last quarter of 2022 when Samsung took the top spot. 

Xiaomi India saw a big organisational rejig last year with Alvin Tse taking the helm as General Manager and Anuj Sharma appointed as CMO. Jain’s exit comes a month after Xiaomi India’s Chief Business Officer Raghu Reddy also left the company to pursue new opportunities. Additionally, this is also after Xiaomi India has been on the radar of the Indian government over allegations of tax evasion since December 2021. 

Manu hasn’t revealed what he wants to do next after quitting Xiaomi. He added that he his taking some time off and would like to do something in a new industry. 

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There are indications that Xiaomi India is being investigated by the country’s financial crimes agency on suspicion of foreign exchange (FX) infractions. In furtherance of the ongoing investigation, the former head of Xiaomi India, Manu Kumar Jain was allegedly summoned by the financial watchdog.

The investigations relate to whether Xiaomi’s business practices in India conformed with Indian FX regulations. The probe reportedly began in February and Jain is expected to help in the investigation by the Enforcement Directorate. It is unclear whether Jain, who is reportedly in India, came specifically in response to the summons. Manu Kumar Jain is currently a global vice president of Xiaomi with his office domiciled in Dubai.

Sources that are privy to the investigation say the financial crimes watchdog is scrutinizing transactions and the existing business structure between the parent company, Xiaomi in India, and contract manufacturers. It has already collected details from Xiaomi India.

Xiaomi says it is fully compliant with the extant laws governing its business in India. It says it is cooperating with authorities on the investigation. Last December, the offices of Xiaomi were raided on allegations of income tax evasion. The Enforcement Directorate has not put out any official statement relating to the investigation.

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Within a few years of entering the Indian market, Xiaomi is now the leading smartphone vendor in India, toppling Samsung which was dominating the market since many years. Now, the company is focusing heavily on expanding its offline presence.

Till now, Xiaomi India Managing Director Manu Kumar Jain was heading the company’s expansion in the brick and mortar stores across India. Now, in a leadership role reassignment, that duty has been passed on to the company’s chief operating officer Muralikrishnan B.

With this change, Xiaomi India’s director for offline sales Sunil Baby will now report to Muralikrishnan. Raghu Reddy, who leads all categories and online sales, will continue in his role and Reddy as well as Muralikrishnan will be reporting to Manu Kumar Jain.

Manu Kumar Jain, who is the company’s managing director in India, would play in key role in planning and deciding Xiaomi’s entry into newer global markets as well as in product categories. He will head the expansion of newer categories, such as smart televisions, and expand presence in internet connected devices and home appliances in India.

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He is also handling the company’s SAARC base with operations in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. It’s noteworthy that Manu Kumar Jain is also in the top leadership team of Xiaomi as a global vice president and is the only expat in the CXO team at Xiaomi Corp.

Xiaomi is not only leading the smartphone market in India but is also a leader in the smart television category in India. The company has announced that it has sold over a million devices in the Indian offline market.

The company currently has an offline presence of more than 2,500 Mi Stores, 75-plus Mi Home and more than 20 Mi Studios. Along with that, it also has a presence in more than 7,000 multi-brand stores that operate as preferred partners.

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According to Manu Kumar Jain, Xiaomi India’s Vice President, India needs to be more competitive with other manufacturing hubs. Historically, China has been the leader in terms of manufacturing and assembly based sectors; this holds true especially for smartphones. However, in recent times, countries like Vietnam and India have been seeing increasing growth in the same area.

Now, the Vice President and Managing Director of Xiaomi India, has stated that India has to take initiatives to be more viable over its other alternatives like Vietnam and China. In an interview, the senior executive stated that the company has requested the Indian Government to make India a “more export-friendly destination.” India’s growth also directly impacts the company which is the leading smartphone brand in the country; that is also the second-largest smartphone market in the world.

He also mentioned a few of the moves the Government can take to favor such an initiative like duty drawback refund for the merchant exporter. Furthermore, Xiaomi is also expected to “invest in laboratories which allow for global standard testing, since BIS is not a globally accepted standard,” according to Manu.

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India has great untapped potential in its emergence as a manufacturing hub and Xiaomi will largely benefit from this. The Chinese tech giant has seven smartphone manufacturing plants in India in collaboration with the Taiwanese company, Foxconn and Singapore-based technological manufacturers, Flex.

Ease in export policies is great for Xiaomi as the company is looking to start a small export pilot to Bangladesh and Nepal for smartphones from India. The company is currently operating at 100 percent capacity with up to three smartphones being made every second which helps the company meet the increasing demand.

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Xiaomi is planning to introduce more partnerships with offline retailers across India. In a bid to suppress competition from Samsung, the Chinese smartphone maker is keen to invest in India’s offline market. The company’s expansion plans are aimed to boost sales of products beyond smartphones, such as televisions, Bluetooth accessories, smart home products and other accessories.

“Our biggest success story has been our offline journey, including setting up more preferred partners, more Mi Home stores,” said Manu Kumar Jain, Vice President, Xiaomi and Managing Director, Xiaomi India, at an event.

Xiaomi will set up new Mi experience stores, and will also increase offline reach via third-party retailers. Currently, Xiaomi owns 50 Mi Home stores, 500 Mi Stores, and 4000 preferred partners stores across the country.  Apart from increasing to 100 Mi Home stores in cities, Xiaomi also plans 5000 small Mi Stores in Rural India, helping the company to reach out to every potential customer. According to Economic Times, the company wants to increase its presence in the multi-brand retail segment also.

“2019 will also witness more ambitious retail expansion of our offline channel to extend support for newer categories such as Mi LED TVs. In smartphones, Xiaomi is the second largest brand in the offline market with nearly 18% market share as of January GFK smartphone tracker,” the spokesperson told ET.

Xiaomi is the largest smartphone manufacturer in India, while Samsung is following it up at the second place. Xiaomi is now looking to dethrone the Korean giant, currently leading the offline market in the country. “For the entire CY 2018, according to IDC numbers, we were almost 30 percent bigger than the second largest brand. In Q4, we were 50 percent bigger than the second biggest brand,” Jain added.

On the other hand, Samsung is now actively working to capture most of the mid-range smartphone market. They have already announced the new mid-range devices under its Galaxy A-series and M-series.

Xiaomi’s online portal Mi.com is India’s third largest e-commerce platform. To further scale up the company’s presence, Xiaomi is launching new products in the next few months. “We’re also launching new categories. Overall, the company is doing exceptionally well in India. From a smartphone business perspective we are now the No. 1 brand for six consecutive quarters by a huge margin.” said Jain.

• Read More: Xiaomi invests 35 billion INR into its India business

Xiaomi manufactures every smartphone sold in India within the country. Xiaomi has exceptionally increased its manufacturing capacity to 3 smartphones per second during operating hours. To expand the brand’s overall presence, Xiaomi is further looking for options to invest in India.

Xiaomi hopes to take on Samsung amid increased competition in both online and offline segments.

(Via: 1, 2)

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