Manu Jain’s surprise appearance

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Editor's note: The launch of Xiaomi’s latest range of Redmi Note smartphones in Delhi yesterday sprang quite the surprise. Manu Jain, the former head of the India operations of the Chinese company, took to the stage at the event.  While Jain explained away his presence as a response to a request by the Xiaomi India team since he was in the city on a personal visit, there is no denying that he became the focus of all the attention rather than the shiny new devices that were being launched. A Xiaomi corporate communications executive I spoke with after the event reiterated that Jain’s appearance was a “one-time thing” and done so he could share an update on the global business. Jain did talk about innovations at the global level, the company’s consistency as the world’s third largest smartphone manufacturer, as well as its leadership position in a number of markets. The attention wasn’t surprising given that Jain, before his hush-hush exit, which we wrote about, was Xiaomi’s face in India, taking the company from a small operation to become India’s largest smartphone …