Finnish mobile handset maker Nokia plans to strengthen its supplier base in India in the coming months. Toward this end, the company is gearing up to launch Nokia Life Tools, agriculture and education information services for rural population soon.

“For Nokia, Indian operations are an alternative to China in manufacturing. We intend to bring in more vendors and strengthen the tier 2 supplier base in India to sustain the momentum and achieve better cost efficiencies,” Josh Foulger, head of India sourcing and president — Nokia SEZ, Sriperumbudur, Nokia said.

Nokia Life Tools, agriculture information and education services, targeted at non-urban consumers, will be available in the next few months. According to estimates, rural areas are likely to account for about 50 per cent of new mobile subscribers in the coming years.

The company is at present undertaking a pilot initiative for Nokia Life Tools, which comes under Nokia’s service business, in Maharashtra.

It has indicated that the formal launch of this service will happen in the first half of this year. After successful implementation in India, Nokia intends to replicate the same in China and African

countries, key emerging markets with strong

rural population.

Nokia Life Tools, described as complementary to the offerings of the service providers, intends to provide information on weather, prices and availability of seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, and prevailing market prices for the produce among others on mobile phone in local languages with easy-to-use graphical interface.

While the company has a supplier base of about 20 component makers, the 210-acre Nokia Telecom SEZ at Sriperumbudur near Chennai, houses six-seven global component suppliers close to the Nokia factory.

The Sriperumbudur facility of Nokia is also a major export centre. It exports about 50 per cent of its production to about 60 countries in South East Asia, West Asia, Australia and New Zealand while the rest of the production is sold in India. “We achieved little higher than the export target we set for 2008,” Foulger added.

Nokia has so far invested about $285 million, close to double the original investment commitment of $150 million made in early 2006 for the subsequent four years, in the Sriperumbudur unit, which employs about 8,000 people, of which women account for major share.

As of October 2008,

the cumulative mobile handset production volumes stood at 200 million units by the unit.

Nevertheless, India has been among the top 10 markets for Nokia to garner highest net sales over the last two years – 2007 and 2008. Nokia’s significant market share gains in Asia-Pacific were primarily driven by its strong growth in the fastest growing markets such as India. Of the total mobile device sales volume of 468 million for Nokia in 2008, Asia Pacific accounted for 134 million with a growth of 19 per cent over the previous year.