Apple looks to scale up manufacturing in India: Piyush Goyal

NEW DELHI: iPhone-maker Apple is looking to scale up its manufacturing in India as the business environment is helping global firms make the country their base, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday.

He said India offers a rule of law, and transparent government policies and business models which help it become a preferred destination for foreign investors.

Talking about success stories of certain foreign companies, he said Apple already have about 5-7 per cent of their manufacturing in India. “If I am not mistaken, they are targeting to go up to 25 per cent of their manufacturing. They launched their most recent models from India, manufactured in India.” The minister was speaking at the inaugural session of the B20 India Inception Meeting here, which was organised by industry chamber CII.

Citing another example of a foreign company in the earth movers machine sector, the minister said that because of the competitiveness of India’s manufacturing, that firm is supplying their products now to 110 countries at affordable competitive prices from India and also doing new launches.

In November 2022, Telecom and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said that the biggest unit to manufacture Apple iPhone in India is coming up at Hosur near Bengaluru, which will employ around 60,000 people.

The company gets iPhones manufactured by electronics giants – Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron in India.

When asked about the global economic uncertainties, he said that this would be a challenging year for the world.

He said inflation in several countries is very high but in such a situation also, India has managed prices.

During the tenure of this government so far, average inflation would be around 4.5 per cent, he said adding earlier 10-12 per cent of inflation was common.

At a time when developed economies are facing slow down, the Indian economy is emerging as one of the fastest growing in the world due to steps taken by the Modi government, Goyal said.

On increasing interest rates in the country, he said that the rates have increased recently due to the situation arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic and war between Ukraine and Russia.

“We believe that every strong step that we have taken to control inflation, RBI would keep that in mind and take steps,” he said.

He further said that huge investment opportunities are there in the country.

“There is no other market in the world as large as the India opportunity,” he said.

“Hope businesses adopt a sustainable future in their practices & together we will draw up an agenda and use the B20 in India to look at how responsible businesses can raise the bar,” he added.

Speaking at the event, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant emphasised the need to make the global value chain more inclusive and resilient and that would require both decoupling and demonopolisation of these value chains.

He said the world is impacted due to geopolitics, and there is a major crisis of fuel, food and fertiliser and rising energy prices in Europe.

“Before we all face extinction, there is a need to go green and there is a need for major climate action, he added.

He said it is in the hands of the private sector to shape the destiny of the world.

“There is also a need for ensuring that the private sector steps up its act to accelerate investments across the world at this very crucial and critical juncture, Kant said.

We must not lose Apple the way we lost Samsung to Vietnam: ICEA chairman

India Inc must create right space to bolster Apple manufacturing in the country, and the country should not lose the Cupertino-based iPhone maker the way it lost Samsung smartphone manufacturing to Vietnam, India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) chairman Pankaj Mohindroo said here on Monday.

Mohindroo said Apple, which is the most valuable company in the world, is welcomed here to manufacture its entire product line and “it is in our great interest that we have their large manufacturing footprint”.

“I just hope India Inc acts together so that we provide the right space for them (Apple), because we lost Samsung completely to Vietnam,” he said.

As Apple faces China disruptions amid Covid surge and supply-chain issues, several reports have surfaced that the Tim Cook-led premium smartphone maker will quickly shift some of its China manufacturing to India and Vietnam in the next 2-3 years.

India is likely to produce 45-50 per cent of Apple’s iPhones by 2027, at par with China, where 80-85 per cent of iPhones were produced in 2022.

As per research analysts, India and Vietnam are to become the biggest beneficiaries of smartphone supply chain migration out of China.