NOTES

World's largest mobile manufacturing factory

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting

South Korea President Moon Jae-in

inaugurated a Samsung Electronics facility

in Noida in Uttar Pradesh

POINTS

•The South Korean tech giant makes 67 million

smartphones in India and with the new plant, it is

expected to manufacture nearly 120 million.

•Samsung’s Noida plant was set up in 1995 -1996

where it has been manufacturing smartphones,

refrigerators and flat-screen televisions.

NOTES

• Samsung had pumped in Rs 4,915 crore for expanding

the unit, from where it plans to not only cater to the

Indian market but also export phones to Europe,

West Asia and Africa.

• “The new unit has come up on an additional 35 acres

adjacent to the current facility. It will double the

production capacity of both mobile phones and

refrigerators,”

THE DOMINO AFFECT

• India’s smartphone market grew 14% with total shipments of 124 million units in 2017, the fastest pace of growth among the top 20 markets, according to International Data Corp.

• In a country of 1.3 billion people where there are only 425 million smartphone users

•Demand for new phones is surging in India, helped in part by Reliance Jio’s cheap phones, free voice services and cheap data plans. Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. said in April it will set up three more factories in India.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 4.0

• The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to

mechanize production. The Second used electric power to

create mass production. The Third used electronics and

information technology to automate production.

• Now a Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third,

the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle

of the last century. It is characterized by a fusion of

technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical,

digital, and biological spheres.

TIMELINE?

• First industrial revolution: in the time period between

1760 and 1840.

•The second industrial revolution took place over the

end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th from

about 1870 to 1914 and the beginning of World War I

GEOPOLITICS

• The geographical importance of the Indo-Pacific region,

covering both Korea and India, is increasing day by day, and

opportunities and challenges are rising at the same time. Many

countries, including the United States, Japan and Australia, have

shown keen interest in the region and continue to discuss ways

to promote regional peace, stability and prosperity.

- S Korea president

SOUTH KOREA GRAND STRATEGY

•Moon embarked on state visits to India and Singapore

from July 8 to 13 as part of efforts to speed up his

"New Southern Policy" initiative.

• India and Singapore, who were allied with the U.S. much

more during the Obama administration, now worry

about being "bullied" as all other allies, such as Mexico,

Canada and the EU.

INDIA-KOREA ECONOMIC AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS

• The trade and economic relations between India and Republic

of Korea (Korea) have gathered momentum in recent years

with bilateral trade reaching $20 billion in 2018.( India is the

13th largest trade partner of Korea. )

• The bilateral Comprehensive Economic Cooperation

Agreement (CEPA) set in place since 2010 has spurred the

process.

NOTES

•Korean majors such as Hyundai Motors, Samsung

Electronics, LG, etc., which have invested around $ 4.90

billion till December 2017 in India, have plans to expand

further.

•Actual Indian FDI led by Mahindra & Mahindra

(Ssangyong Motors), Aditya Birla Group (Novelis Ltd.) &

TATA (Tata Daewoo commercial vehicles) also is inching

close to $ 3 billion.

CHINA–SOUTH KOREA RELATIONS

Total trade between the two

nations surpassed US$300 billion

in 2014