• Tuesday, July 02, 2024

Business

Foxconn CEO Young Liu gets Padma Bhushan, India’s top civilian award

The Taiwanese technology giant has been its expanding its presence in the South Asian country over the past few years.

Foxconn Chairman and CEO Young Liu (L) greets Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and Indian junior electronics and IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar at SemiconIndia 2023 in Gandhinagar in the Gujarat state on July 28, 2023. (Photo by SAM PANTHAKY/AFP via Getty Images)

By: Shubham Ghosh

IN a move that would please the corporate world, the Narendra Modi government on Thursday (25) conferred Young Liu, the chief executive officer and chairman of Taiwanese technology giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. or Foxconn, with Padma Bhushan, the country’s third-highest civilian award.

The 66-year-old Liu is a renowned entrepreneur and innovator with more than four decades of industry experience, according to the company’s official website.

The Foxconn chief founded three companies– Young Micro Systems, a motherboard company in 1988; a northbridge and southbridge IC design company in 1995 focused on the PC chipset and an ITE Tech and an ADSL IC design company, ITeX, two years later.

Read: Foxconn to double employment, investment in India in next 12 months

Liu received a bachelor’s degree in Electrophysics in 1978 from Taiwan’s National Chiao Tung University and moved to University of South Carolina where he did his master’s in computer engineering.

Foxconn assembles around 70 per cent of iPhones and is the world’s biggest contract manufacturer. It has been diversifying production from China following disruptions caused during the Covid-19 pandemic and other geopolitical tensions. The company has been rapidly increasing its presence in India in recent times by investing heavily in manufacturing facilities, particularly in south India.

Read: Modi’s Gujarat holds talks with Foxconn for semiconductor plant after Taiwan major dumps Vedanta deal: report

Liu said in the recent past that reforms and policies adopted by the Indian government have created major opportunities for developing the entire electronics manufacturing ecosystem.

“India will be a very important country in terms of manufacturing in the future,” he had said.

Reacting to the award conferred on him by the Indian government, Liu said he is deeply honoured and thanked Indian president Droupadi Murmu, prime minister Narendra Modi and the “wonderful” people of India for the “tremendous distinction”. He encouraged his company to do manufacturing in India and for the betterment of society.

Apart from Liu, three other business leaders from India were also among the Padma award recipients this year.

Sitaram Jindal from the southern state of Karnataka was chosen for Padma Bhushan while Kalpana Morparia from the western state of Maharashtra and Shashi Soni, also from Karnataka, were chosen for Padma Shri — the fourth-highest civilian award.

The prestigious Padma awards were announced on the eve of Republic Day. This year, president Murmu approved 132 Padma awardees in fields such as art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, and medicine, among others.

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