LG starts making phones in India, plans country-specific models.

LG Electronics has started manufacturing smartphones in India, and will for the first time, launch India-specific models in its quest to get back to the highgrowth trajectory in the country.

The South Korean parent company has already inked an agreement with GDN Enterprises, a part of New Delhi-based Optiemus Group, for manufacturing and has started trial production with two models. The lines have been imported from South Korea and will be expanded to include more models, three senior industry executives said.

Optiemus currently manufactures for HTC and Oppo and has inked a joint venture with Taiwan's leading contract manufacturer Wistron for setting up a new plant, which will eventually undertake production for these smartphone brands.

Local manufacturing will give a price edge to LG since the duties and taxes will come down by more than 10%, the executives said.

ET