South Korean electronics company Samsung is about to sign a deal with Indian home grown manufacturer Dixon Technologies for the production of television sets up to the size of 55 inches, which constitutes around 85 percent of the Indian market.

Samsung, the largest television brand in India is hoping to restart the production line in its Chennai plant which was shut down by the Government of India last October after it imposed import duty on open cell television panels. After the imposition of import duty by the Government of India, the company

had to resort to its plant located in Vietnam for the production of finished television through the Free Trade Agreement(FTA) route.

There are currently no television manufacturers in India and the government is trying desperately to push local television production. The television industry in India is going through the worst phase in its history as consumers are increasingly buying Chinese and online brands such as Xiome, Kotak and Thompsons. This trend has forced Samsung, Sony and L.G to cut the prices of its television set by 20-30 percent. This year in the month of September the centre had scrapped the import duties which it had introduced in October 2018. Samsung is optimistic that the scrapping of import duties will provide them with further cushion if it wants to cut prices even further.

Dixon Technologies is already manufacturing televisions for Xiome, Sanyo and Panasonic and will produce television sets for Samsung from its plant near Tirupati. The production will include both high definition and smart T.V's. So far four different sizes have been proposed 32, 43, 50 and 55 inches. Dixon Technologies and Samsung already have a healthy relationship as Dixon Technologies is producing semi-automatic washing machines and smart phones.