NEW DELHI: Asustek Computers, the Taiwanese company that sells handsets under the Asus brand, is actively considering the scope for manufacturing in India, as it seeks to tap more of the country’s fast growing smartphone market by leveraging the government’s Make in India initiative.“With the new government policies, we do see some benefits of manufacturing devices in India. We are currently evaluating how to start manufacturing out of India and will soon take a final decision on the same,” Peter Chang, country manager at Asus India, told ET. “We are in the process of hiring a consultancy firm to evaluate the prospects of manufacturing in India.”The company would also look at setting up a research and development lab in India. Currently, Asus has R&D centers in Taiwan and China.​The move comes after the budget for fiscal 2015-16 made importing of handsets more expensive as part of the government’s efforts to promote local manufacturing. Since then, several of Asus’ bigger rivals have also shown interest in making phones in a market considered as one of the fastest growing in the world.India-based Micromax, Lava and Karbonn have spoken about their plans to manufacture in India, while global companies such as Xiaomi have also evinced interest. Market leader Samsung is looking to expand local production.Asus is hopeful of getting more than half its India revenue from a newly established smartphone vertical. It sold 1.4 million smartphones since entering the segment in July 2014 in India.“We closed the 2014-15 financial year at around $150 million (Rs 935 crore), out which 40% revenue came from our smartphone business. We are now expecting almost 60% of our revenues coming from this vertical,” Chang said.Like most smartphone brands in India, Asus is aggressively pushing online sales through its partnership with ecommerce firm Flipkart. The company is also leveraging its exclusive retail outlets.Asus has a 2% share of the smartphone market in India and is hopeful of taking it to 5% by the end of 2015, riding on new product launches and an aggressive marketing strategy.“Half of our entire marketing budget would be spent on smartphones,” Chang said.The company will launch its flagship ZenFone 2 smartphone in India this month. The latest ZenFone 2 has several variants – including one with a 5-inch display and a few with 5.5-inch displays – with memory up to 4GB of RAM. Asus is expected to price the top variant under Rs 20,000, to compete with the likes of Xiaomi Mi 4 and OnePlus One.The handset maker is also foraying in to the accessories space with its power-banks, besides launching its own forum to connect with its customers.In July last year, Asus launched the ZenFone 4, ZenFone 5 and ZenFone 6 Android-based smartphones as well as a voice-calling tablet, Fonepad 7, in India.The handset maker wants to also enter the Indian wearables market with the Asus ZenWatch towards the end of this fiscal year. Chang said the company wants to first create a good smartphone base in India before launching its smartwatch. “We would also bring a smartband (fitness-band) soon,” he said.Considering the growth in the smartphone space, Chang said, the company would expand its chain of service centers.