Xiaomi Vice President Manu Jain resigns after 9 years in office

The global vice president of Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi and former head of the company’s Indian unit, Manu Kumar Jain, has resigned. He was associated with Xiaomi for nine years. The company is in a legal dispute with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over alleged violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in India.

Jain said in a tweet: “I have had a lot of support in the last nine years and it is very difficult to say goodbye. Thank you all. The end of a journey is also the beginning of a new one.” Jain was instrumental in strengthening the company’s business in India. He was appointed Xiaomi’s global vice president about five years ago. Apart from India, he was running Xiaomi’s business in Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. “As our business has grown, it has helped create more than 50,000 jobs in India,” Jain said.

Xiaomi began laying off workers from several of its units last month. The company plans to reduce its workforce by 15 percent. The number of Xiaomi employees stood at 35,314 at the end of September. Of these, more than 32,000 are in China. Thousands of workers may be affected by this company decision. Lockdown was imposed in many cities to prevent the spread of corona in China. This reduced the demand for electronic products. However, Xiaomi has managed to increase its market share in Europe.

The company’s India unit has been accused of providing false information to its banker Deutsche Bank over the years. The company had claimed that it had an agreement for the payment of royalties, while there was none of that. The investigation against the company found that it had “illegally” remitted money under the “chief” of royalties to US chipmaker Qualcomm and others. A Deutsche Bank executive had told investigators that Indian law required a legal agreement between Xiaomi’s India unit and Qualcomm for royalty payments. The company told Deutsche Bank that it had such an agreement, whereas it did not.