When Nokia opened its $150m factory last January in Chennai, it expected to increase employees from 550 to 2,000 by end of 2006. By November, though, the Finnish telecoms company had already built its strength up to 3,800 employees as a result of booming demand from the Indian market and fast progress building up exports. Nokia expects India to be its second-largest market by volume by 2010.
As of last November, Nokia had produced 20m handsets in India. “When we started production, our target was to meet domestic requirements,” says Jukka Lehtela, director of India operations for Nokia India. “However, today we are already exporting to south-east Asian countries. On every metric, we have seen tremendous growth.”
