NEW DELHI (Sputnik) — Promises are made to be broken. This holds true for the controversial Indian smartphone maker Ringing Bells. Just a day before, Ringing Bells was to start delivering the Rs 251 ($3.70) smartphone ‘Freedom 251' to 200,000 customers. However, the controversial manufacturer has postponed delivery by one more deadline.
Mohit Goel, the CEO of Ringing Bells, spoke at length with Sputnik about why they could not meet the deadline and what they plan to do next.
"We will begin delivery of ‘Freedom 251' to the customers in 2-4 days. In a day or two, we will provide all the details related to the delivery of ‘Freedom 251'."
However, the company never expected overruns. According to Goyal, "We were expecting a profit even at the sale price of $3.70. But, the cost of the deal with the smartphone application maker proved to be beyond the target. Still, we will deliver the smartphone to consumers but the government has to support us for the larger cause."
The 'Digital India' campaign, conceived and implemented by Modi's government, envisages that every Indian will be connected to the Internet to maximize the reach of government schemes as well as facilitate research and the provision of study materials for millions of students. However, Goyal says "the irony is that 750 million Indians do not have smartphones. I want the government to distribute smartphones to every Indian. For the sake of that 50% of Indians, the government can ask any company to manufacture cheap smartphones. For this, the government can provide subsidies to the manufacturer for the benefit of millions of Indians. The subsidy amount will be up to $3 billion."
Goyal says that his motive behind this scheme was to show to the world that India can deliver smartphones at the cheapest rate.
"Even if government wants to procure 700 million smartphones at a cost of Rs 251 ($3.70), the company can deliver the amount within a year, provided that the loss incurred per unit is subsidized by the government. If the government can't trust this company, they can acquire Ringing Bells or send government officials to oversee the manufacturing process. However, we will not bribe leaders or officials to bag the project."
Goyal says, "We have provided all the details the agencies wanted from us. We have no idea about the case but from our side we are certain that nothing fraudulent will be found with the scheme. Nothing wrong has been done on our side."