India on Thursday approved a manufacturing joint venture between China’s Vivo and local manufacturer Dixon Technologies, a move that could mark the next phase of the country’s smartphone manufacturing boom after Apple helped turn India into a global smartphone production hub.
The approval allows Vivo to proceed with a long-delayed manufacturing partnership first announced in December 2024, after New Delhi cleared the investment under investment rules introduced in 2020 that require extra government scrutiny of investment from countries sharing a land border with India — a category that includes China. The joint venture will acquire certain manufacturing assets from Vivo, manufacture part of the company’s smartphone orders in India, and can also produce electronic products for other brands, according to a stock exchange filing by Noida-based Dixon.
