The Apple Inc., on Friday has told the government that they plan to make most of its products in India. It also said that they will establish a string of partners which might include contract manufacturers and suppliers for the phones. The company already has plans to start local production of iPhone SE, in India.
Speaking to The Economic Times, IT Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said, “Apple plans to move up the in their next phase, in terms of producing the entire suite of products, definitely all models, for which their entire ecosystem of (the) partners needs to move in.” It is for this reason, Apple’s main contract manufacturers like Wistron, Pegatron and Inventec are watching every move of Apple closely. She added, “Apple has two primary tasks, one that they should be able to import the components that they need, and second that it should be cheaper for them to manufacture here than to import.”
The secretary also added that “The second question is where the government has not yet taken a view because this is to be decided only after the GST (goods and services tax) is finalized.”
Apple’s largest contract maker, Foxconn is apparently in active talks with the government and already made a pact of $5 billion investment. A senior executive of Foxconn said, “It may well be a three-four way game between Foxconn, Wistron, Pegatron, and Inventec—two of them are already in India.”
Apple spokesperson, speaking to a news daily said, “We’ve been working hard to develop our operations in India and are proud to deliver the best products and services in the world to our customers here. We appreciate the constructive dialogue we’ve had with the government about further expanding our local operations.”
Sundararajan, the IT Secretary said the department has met several contract manufacturing firms from Southeast Asia that were looking to set up stores in India. She said that “It’s a question of when not whether.”
Most of the firms planning to set up in India are awaiting the GST roll out, which is planned to be around April, before they finalize plans.
