Indian Government Asks Apple To Make Products Worth $5 Bn In The Country

In a rapid push towards its Make In India policy, officials of the Indian government have reportedly asked Cupertino-based tech giant Apple to generate an annual production output of products worth $5 Bn in the next five to six years. 

Top government officials had a high-level meeting with senior functionaries from Apple where they asked the hardware and software manufacturer to develop India as a global base to export fully-built products to the rest of the world, in line with what the company is doing in China currently, according to TOI. 

Last week, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had ordered a probe into the company’s operations in India over alleged unfair business practices pertaining to its app store policies. It had also directed the director general to complete the investigation and submit its report within a period of 60 days from the date of the order. 

In the last year, Apple registered revenue of $365.8 Bn, with $191.9 Bn of that coming from iPhone sales alone. Sales of the iPad ($31.8 Bn), wearable, home and accessory devices ($38.3 Bn in 2019), Mac devices ($35.1 Bn in 2019) also contributed to its bottom line. 

Made-in-India iPhones make up about 70% of the company’s mobile phone sales in the country, in part due to the government’s Production-linked incentive scheme (PLI). The PLI scheme for large scale electronic manufacturing gives a financial incentive for the domestic manufacturing of mobile phones, electronics components and advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs).

The government plans to give incentives of up to INR 40,951 Cr over a period of five years. But even this 70% coming from its manufacturing partners Foxconn and Wistron (who have plants in India) is a small trickle compared to the waterfall of products that are manufactured in China. 

In 2020, Wistron, the Taiwan-based manufacturing company, made headlines after its plant in the country got vandalised by employees over salary payment issues.