JOIN USAlvin Tse appointed as new GM of Xiaomi India
In a major reshuffle of the senior executive team in India, Xiaomi has appointed Alvin Tse as the new general manager of the company's subcontinent division.
Manu Jain, who previously held concurrent positions of vice president (global) and GM (India), shifted base to Dubai in 2021, will now fully lead the international strategy including global marketing and PR (public relations).
British-born Alvin Tse, a co-founding member of the Poco brand, will be now working with Muralikrishnan B, (Chief Operating Officer), Raghu Reddy (chief business officer), and Sameer BS Rao, (chief financial officer) to lead the India region business.
Anuj Sharma, who previously lead Poco India, has returned to Xiaomi India, as chief marketing officer to look after the overall brand and marketing strategy.
The change in leadership is said to be necessitated due to the ongoing investigation of money laundering by the state-run Enforcement Directorate (ED). With Manu Jain in Dubai, Xiaomi had to bring in a senior executive to co-operate with the investigation.
In late April, ED seized Xiaomi India's funds worth over Rs 5,551 crore over the alleged violation of the Indian foreign exchange law (Foreign Exchange Management Act).
The Chinese company had complained that its top executives were threatened with "physical violence and coercion" during their questioning by ED investigators. The latter had rejected the claim as baseless and at no point, did any of the Xiaomi employees were threatened.
Recently, Apple, India Cellular and Electronics Association and other technology companies too raise concerns over investigations on Xiaomi.
Without mentioning the Chinese company, they wrote a letter to related union ministries, saying ED lacked an understanding of how patent royalty fees work.
Xiaomi in its defence, has claimed that the Rs 5,400 crore was meant for patent-fee payments and its statements to financial institutions have been accurate. The investigation is still ongoing.
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