New Delhi, June 4: After strengthening its position in the Indian feature phone market, Chinese conglomerate Transsion Holdings is now looking at capturing a bigger pie of the competitive smartphone segment, the company's newly-appointed India CEO has stressed.

In 2017, the company sold approximately 130 million devices and achieved revenue of around 20 billion Yuan (Rs 21,000 crore) globally.

"After seeing tremendous growth for our brand itel in the Indian mobile handset market, we are now focused on creating a bigger space in the Indian smartphone market with a fresh line-up soon," Arijeet Talapatra, CEO of Transsion India, told hereon Monday.

The company is set to launch a series of Next-Gen smartphones aligned with the young consumers' needs in the country.

According to a CyberMedia Research (CMR) report, over the last one year, itel has emerged as the second largest player in the overall mobile phone market in India, capturing more than 9 per cent market share for 2017.

The brand registered an exponential growth of 217 per cent (year-on-year).

"We want to make itel a household name among Indian consumers," said Talapatra.

Transsion today has over 1,000 service touch points in India.

"Since our inception in India, we've been on a mission to provide a superior smartphone experience to all our customers through unique service proposition for all our brands," the CEO reiterated.

As the new CEO, Talapatra will lead the development and execution of the company's long-term strategy with a view to create shareholder value in alignment with the company's identity.

He will be responsible for leading the development and execution of long-term strategies, overall success of the organisation and making top-level managerial decisions.

"India is Transsion's second largest market after Africa. As per recent reports, we have already become the fifth largest mobile handset player in India," Talapatra told IANS.

Transsion Holdings recently launched its second exclusive "company-owned, company-operated (COCO)" service centre in India to provide customer services through its exclusive after-sales service brand called "Carlcare".

Transsion's previous COCO store was inaugurated at Noida in September last year.

"Owing to Carlcare's capabilities and faster repair efficiencies, we have strengthened our service commitment to the Indian customers by launching our second exclusive centre in Mumbai," Talapatra said.

According to the IDC, Transsion Group made its debut in the top 5 in India with more than three-fold annual growth in shipments in Q1 2018.

The China-based group has four brands under its umbrella -- itel, Tecno, Infinix and Spice.

In the first quarter of 2018, itel stood at third position with 13 per cent market share in the global feature phone market, said a Counterpoint report.

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London/New Delhi: Professor Nitasha Kaul, a London-based academic, announced on May 18, 2025, via a social media post that her Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card has been cancelled by the Indian government. She described the move as a "bad faith, vindictive, cruel example of transnational repression" intended to punish her for her scholarly work critical of the Modi government's policies concerning minorities and democracy.

The cancellation follows an incident in February 2024 when Professor Kaul, who holds a British passport and held an OCI card, was denied entry into India upon arrival at Bengaluru airport. She had been invited by the then Congress-led Karnataka state government to speak at a conference on "The Constitution and Unity in India."

According to an image of the letter shared by Professor Kaul, the Indian government stated that it had been "brought to the notice of the Government of India that you have been found indulging in anti-India activities, motivated by malice and complete disregard for facts or history." The letter further accused her of regularly targeting India and its institutions on matters of India's sovereignty through "numerous inimical writings, speeches and journalistic activities at various international forums and on social media platforms."

Professor Kaul, who is a Professor of Politics, International Relations, and Critical Interdisciplinary Studies and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) at the University of Westminster, London, vehemently rejects these accusations. She stated she had provided a 20,000-word response to what she termed the government's "ridiculous inanity about ‘anti-India’," but the OCI was cancelled through a "rigged process."

In her social media posts, Professor Kaul lamented the decision, questioning how the "mother of democracy" could deny her access to her mother in India. She characterized the action as stemming from "thin-skinned, petty insecurity with no respect for well-intentioned dissent."

The February 2024 denial of entry had already sparked controversy. At the time, immigration officials reportedly cited "orders from Delhi" without providing formal reasons, though Professor Kaul mentioned informal references to her past criticism of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The Ministry of External Affairs had then responded by stating that the entry of foreign nationals into India is a "sovereign decision." Unofficial government sources had indicated that a "preventive lookout circular" was issued against her due to her alleged "pro-separatist" and "anti-India" stance on Kashmir.

The BJP in Karnataka had criticised the state government for inviting her, labelling her an "anti-India element." Conversely, the then-Karnataka government and various international human rights organizations and academic bodies had condemned the denial of entry.

Professor Kaul has been an outspoken commentator on Indian politics, including the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, and has testified before international bodies such as the US Congress on human rights in the region. She maintains her work is academic and pro-democracy, not anti-India.

The cancellation of her OCI card effectively bars her from entering India, a country to which she has personal and academic ties. This incident adds to a growing list of academics, journalists, and activists of Indian origin whose OCI status has been revoked or who have been denied entry to India in recent years, raising concerns about freedom of speech and dissent. Reports indicate that over 100 OCI cards were cancelled by the Indian government between 2014 and May 2023. Furthermore, in 2021, new rules were introduced requiring OCI cardholders to obtain special permission for activities such as research and journalism.