PremiumNEW DELHI: Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi on Thursday announced a tie-up with non-profit organisation Teach for India to celebrate India’s 74th Independence Day. As part of the association, the company has pledged to donate 2,500 new smartphones, worth ₹2 crore, to children from communities that have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the company, its exclusive retail network will be instrumental in donating the phones. Xiaomi managing director, Manu Jain, also urged people to tell the company about people who have been affected by the pandemic.
The Teach for India partnership is meant to help children continue their education through online learning. The company is using the partnership to mark five years of its own Make in India manufacturing initiatives.
According to Xiaomi, most of its televisions are made in India right now. The company also partners with Foxconn to make smartphones in the country.
Xiaomi has been leading India’s smartphone market in terms of sales, but has faced backlash thanks to anti-China sentiment in the country. The Indian government has banned two apps from the company, Mi Browser Pro and Mi Community, which are integral to the company’s ecosystem strategy for sales.
The two apps were amongst the nearly 100 apps banned by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) after border clashes between India and China at the Galwan Valley.
While the company has been able to retain its spot atop the smartphone market, fellow Chinese competitors like Vivo and Oppo have lost their hold to an extent. South Korean smartphone maker Samsung, which had been losing its foothold in India’s smartphone space, rose to the number two spot in the second quarter of 2020, according to two industry reports.
American smartphone giant, Apple, also saw 5% year-on-year growth in this quarter.
