Toshiba India has revealed its plans to start mass production of low-cost LCD TVs in India by this year end. For this purpose, Toshiba intends to open a new R&D centre at Gurgaon, which will focus mainly on developing India-centric products.

Speaking about Toshiba's plans on starting mass production of LCD TVs in India, Wu Tengguo, Director of Digital Products at Toshiba India has revealed that these products are presently being imported from Indonesia. With the intention of providing wider network access to retail and service centres to customers, Toshiba has apparently unified its computer and television line of businesses in India.

Meanwhile, Toshiba has already stirred up hot competition among the LCD manufacturers in India by introducing low-cost LCD flat panel TVs - a 19-inch version at Rs. 10,000 and a 32-inch version at Rs. 20,990, which are much cheaper than similar offerings from its counterparts like LG, Samsung, Sony and Onida. At the same time, we cannot ignore the competition from smaller market shareholders like Moser Baer, Haier, Hitachi, Sharp, Vu, and Videocon. With the intention of capturing the lucrative market share in the LCD TV segment, Toshiba aims to sell about 300,000 LCD televisions this year, as against just 30,000 units the previous year.