Xiaomi to set up 2 plants, launch more devices in India.

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi plans to set up two manufacturing plants in India and launch more devices this year as it ramps up its presence in the world's fastest growing market amid a cooling in its home market.

Bin Lin, billionaire co-founder and president at Xiaomi, told ET that he will be spending a lot more time in India, underlining the South Asian nation's importance amid challenges in its biggest market, China.

The India plan includes manufacturing of handset peripherals and components, he said.

'We believe it (China) will be a flat market, if not, even decline,' said 48-year-old Lin, worth nearly $1.1 billion (Rs. 7,480 crore) as per the Forbes list of billionaires.

Conversely, Lin expects India, already the world's fastest growing smartphone market, to further gain steam, selling around 140 million devices in 2016, compared with about a 100 million last year.

'Also, people buying smartphones from ecommerce are also going to grow very rapidly, and we're a big part of that,' said Lin, a former Microsoft and Google executive.

ET