Blackberry lauds 'Make in India' initiative for enabling better value proposition

BlackBerry's India device manufacturer, Optiemus Infracom Ltd. on Tuesday lauded the Centre's 'Make in India' initiative for helping manufacturers to save their production costs by setting manufacturing units in the country.

Speaking to ANI on the sidelines of the launch of BlackBerry KEYone Limited Edition Black smartphone, Hardip Singh, Executive Director of Optiemus Infracom Ltd. said the manufacturing of the device was facilitated in Noida solely due to the aforementioned initiative.

"It is because of the Make in India initiative that we are able to carry out the manufacturing of the device in our facility in Noida, and offer the phone at such aggressive pricing. Had this not been the case, the cost would have been much higher, since it would attract a host of taxes. It has enabled better value proposition," added Singh.

Talking about the future roadmap, Hardip said that company is likely to launch many more devices within the span of six to twelve months.

However, Optiemus launched the BlackBerry KEYone limited edition Black at Rs 39,990. The device, which will be available exclusively on Amazon, starting from August 8, features latest security, privacy and data encryption earlier today.

In addition, BlackBerry KEYone also sports security options with fingerprint sensor built directly into the keyboard spacebar for added functionality and security.