(This story originally appeared in on Jul 03, 2015)

NEW DELHI: Japanese electronics giant Sony is all set to make in India, though the products will be contract-manufactured at Taiwanese maker Foxconn 's upcoming facilities in the country. Sony looks at local sourcing for the second time after it stop ped the practice in 2004 when i opted to only import.Top industry sources said Sony has decided in favour o local manufacturing as the government has offered sever al incentives. “However, Sony is not looking at manufactur ing on its own at this mo ment," a source said. Sony India MD Kenichiro Hibi said a final decision is yeto be taken. “There are many possibilities that we are look ng at (for making in India). Contract manufacturing is one of them. However, we are yet to decide," Hibi told TOI.Sources said a decision has been made to tap into Foxconn's acilities. This route will not en ail heavy investments and will eave the company with an op ion to set up an independent manufacturing location in the future, when required.Foxconn is planning to start many factories in India where it will manufacture products for a host of companies such as Xiaomi and Apple .In Andhra Pradesh, the company is understood to have zeroed in on Sri City for its operations and Sony's products will also be made there.Sony sells mobile phones, televisions and cameras in India and imports them from plants in Thailand, Malaysia, China and Japan. The benefits given for local manufacturing has put pressure on the company as bigger rivals such as Samsung LG and a host of other mobile phone companies are already assembling in India.Finance minister Arun Jaitley had made provisions in the Union Budget this year to incentivize local manufacturing in line with the government's 'Make in India' initiative. In case of mobile phones, for example, local manufacturing will be cheaper by around 11 per cent.Sony stopped local manu facturing in 2004 as a relatively smaller business size in India at that time did not justify a production facility and the company found it more efficient to source from its factories overseas, especially in view of India's free-trade agreements with some of the countries.India is turning out to be a key market for Sony globally at a time when operations in many other countries are struggling. It is also one of the few markets where operations of mobile phones and TVs are growing for the company.The share of mobile phones to Sony's India revenues is 35% and a similar contribution comes from the TV division.The company clocked revenues of over Rs 10,000 crore in India last year.