Vaishnaw inaugurates India's first tempered glass factory in Noida set up by Optiemus

Noida, Aug 30 (PTI) Union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday inaugurated the country's first tempered glass factory set up by Optiemus Infracom here.

Optiemus has partnered with US material technology firm Corning for making the tempered glass that are used as protective layer for mobile phone screens.

"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," Vaishnaw said.

With an initial investment of Rs 70 crore, the Optiemus Infracom facility in Noida will have an installed capacity of 2.5 crore units per annum, generating direct employment for over 600 people.

In phase 2, it will scale up capacity to 20 crore units per annum for local and global markets, with an additional investment of Rs 800 crore.

The minister said that in the past 11 years, electronics manufacturing in India has grown six times to reach a production value of Rs 11.5 lakh crore, with exports of over Rs 3 lakh crore and direct and indirect employment for 25 lakh people.

Vaishnaw asked Optiemus to consider increasing its research team headcount of 40 to 400 as product design and development is going to be the core strength of the electronics manufacturing industry.

He said that the overall electronics ecosystem in the country is developing rapidly and value addition is being enhanced step by step.

Company's Chairman Ashok Kumar Gupta said that Optiemus plans to make an investment of Rs 800 crore in one year for producing tempered glass locally and expects to create direct and indirect employment for 16,000 people.

"In phase 2, we will set up another factory in Noida with installed capacity of 10 crore and a factory in South with initial installed capacity to produce 15 crore tempered glass with an investment of over Rs 450 crore. The entire Rs 800 crore will be invested in the production of tempered glass in the next 12 months," Gupta said.

He said the company will start selling Made-in-India tempered glass under RhinoTech brand from September with unlimited replacement during 1 year warranty period.

Gupta is hopeful of getting market traction with government intervention to check sale of non-standard compliant tempered glass in the country.

Corning and Optiemus have also set up a joint venture unit in Chennai to make cover glass -- which comes fixed on top of mobile displays from the factories. The production of the cover glass is expected to start by the end of this year. PTI PRS ANU