Will make profit of Rs 31 on each Rs 251 Smartphone: Mohit Goel

February 22, 2016

New Delhi, Feb 22: Since he announced the launch of a mobile phone for Rs 251, Mohit Goel has faced widespread scepticism, along with visits by police and income tax officials at his rented two-storey office in Noida. However, the Amity University graduate insists that he will not only deliver the phones at the stunning price he has quoted, but also make a profit of Rs 31 on each handset sold.

mohith1"Why am I being hounded? What wrong have I done?" Goel asked in the course of an exclusive interview with TOI. The director of Ringing Bells insists that his new venture is not a fly-by-night operation and will begin customer deliveries from April 15. "Has there ever been a case of income-tax evasion against me or my company, or has there been an FIR filed against me in any police station? Why am I being called a 'bhagora' (who'll run away with the money)? I intend to do a valid business, just like any other startup, and I have a business plan ready."

The company claims it has received over 7 crore registrations on its website since it started accepting applications on February 18. "We are taking online bookings for only 25 lakh units in the first batch due to limited supplies, while giving another 25 lakh through offline distributors. I will deliver the handsets before June 30. All the money that we receive from customers through the payment gateway will be kept in an escrow account and we will touch it only when we deliver the devices." The company has an account with ICICI Bank.

Goel, and his much-older confidant Ashok Chadha, who is the president of the company, insists that there have not been any infringements on design and other matters. "Some of the devices had the Adcom branding as we sourced panel (screen) from them. However, the final device will have our branding and the phone will have the same features and design that we had showcased."

The dual SIM Freedom 251 device carries a 4-inch display, 1 GB RAM, 8GB internal memory with a 1.3 GHZ quad-core processor, dual cameras and comes with a charger, headphone and one-year warranty.

The duo say that they have a carefully laid-out business model to manage the disruptive price for the device "The price that works out per device is roughly around Rs 1,500," Chadha says. insists, though significantly lowering it down from the Rs 2,500 he had announced on the day of the unveiling of the device. "We will source the devices from a supplier in Noida, who will be assembling the units for us after getting components from Taiwan." And while we do this, we also start the work to identify land and suppliers for setting up our manufacturing locations. For this, we have identified Noida while also looking at locations in Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Bihar and Punjab," Chadha says.

And just how does he bring down the cost to Rs 251, and also earn a profit? "Economies of scale gets it down to around Rs 1,200, and thereafter an online sales model cuts down marketing and sales expenses, giving us further savings," he says. And to this we will add marketing piggybacks from companies whose applications we load on the devices. We will save around Rs 300 per device more through this," Chadha says.

The unveiling of the phone on February 17 had created quite a flutter among existing handset suppliers, prompting industry body Indian Cellular Association to file a complaint with the government. (ICA) - which has members such as Samsung, Apple, Sony, Lava, Micromax, Karbonn, Motorola and HTC - ICA president Pankaj Mohindroo wrote a letter to telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, expressing doubts about the intentions of Ringing Bells, saying it is not possible to supply a phone for Rs 251. Also, there were allegations that the company had ripped off the design of the prototype from American phone major Apple's iPhone, while also giving out devices sourced from a local electronics importer Adcom.

The company is also talking to large e-commerce companies, such as travel website Goibibo, to get their apps on the devices. "We will also monetize from the heavy traffic on our website and will make it into a marketplace for other brands to hop on. This will also help us to bring down the cost."

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rampa
 - 
Monday, 22 Feb 2016

I think battery only original.

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News Network
April 16,2020

Madikeri, Apr 16: A man from Ketumotte in Virajpet, who was cured of COVID-19 and returned to his home, has again been admitted to the hospital, following a complaint of fever, on Wednesday noon.

The man, who voluntarily got admitted to the hospital, is being treated in the isolation ward of the Covid-19 hospital. His throat swab and blood samples have been sent for testing. The report is likely to be out by Thursday morning.

After getting discharged from the hospital on April 7, he was home quarantined. After a week, he developed fever again. The person has not moved out of his house and the people need not fear, said Deputy Commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy.

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coastaldigest.com news network
June 7,2020

Mangaluru/Udupi, Jun 7: Coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi have recorded 17 and 13 new coronavirus positive cases between 5 p.m. on June 6 and 5 p.m. on June 7. 

16 among 17 new covid patients in Dakshina Kannada are returnees from Maharashtra, while one returned from Goa recently.

Maharashtra returnees comprise 14 males, including three teenagers t, and two females aged 32 and 41. The Goa returnee is a 32-year-old male.

All of them have all been admitted to the designated COVID hospital in the district.

With this, the total tally of coronavirus cases in Dakshina Kannada has risen to 203, out of which 47 are currently active. As many as 150 patients have recovered and been discharged, and seven have died.

Among the 13 in Udupi, 12 are Maharashtra returnees, while process of contact tracing of one patient, a 30-year-old woman, is going on.

The patients comprise eight males, including a 7-year-old boy, and five females. They have all been admitted to the designated hospital.

This takes the total number of coronavirus cases in Udupi district to 902, out of which 798 are currently active, 103 discharged, and one patient has died.

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coastaldigest.com news network
July 7,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 7: Vasudeva Maiya, former CEO of Sri Guru Raghavendra Co-operative Bank, was found dead in his car in Bengaluru on July 6.

The Subramanyapura police have begun an investigation into Vasudeva Maiya's death.  Source said that he committed suicide. He was a native of Kota in Udupi district.

The car was found parked a little away from Maiya's house at around 6.30 pm on July 6.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had in January imposed restrictions on Sri Guru Raghavendra Co-operative Bank and limited withdrawals to Rs 35,000 by customers.

On June 18, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) raided five offices of Sri Guru Raghavendra Co-operative Bank, in relation to alleged misappropriation of Rs 1,400 crore.

The RBI, Enforcement Directorate, Criminal Investigation Department, and Registrar of Cooperative Societies are looking into the financial irregularities at the lender.

The police also conducted searches at residences of Maiya and the bank's chairman K Ramakrishna in relation to the above mentioned case, sources said.

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