Apple Has Started Lobbying For India Incentives As It Is Planning Assembly Of Ipad
The prestigious Apple Inc is pretty much angling for participating in the new scheme to boost the exports of India in computer products and as part of the government and industry sources, there are plans to bring the manufacturing of iPad tablet to the country.
India has launched a plan of $ 6.7 billion to boost the exports of smartphones last year as efforts have been stepped up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and promote the manufacturing of electronics and create jobs.
Apple has steadily raised its production of iPhones in India as it is lessening its dependence on manufacturing done by China. Apple has taken part in the scheme through its contract manufacturers.
The government is preparing hard to unveil another incentive and drive in local manufacturing of IT products that include servers, laptops, tablets as three sources are there that are closely involved in drafting the plans according to news outlets.
The new scheme of performance-linked incentives (PLI) offers cashback to all the manufacturers for exports, and it is going to have a budget of up to Rs. 7,000 crore over five years is nearly $964.5 million according to sources. The scheme is expected to be launched by the end of February.
Along with others, Apple is trying to lobby for a much bigger monetary outlay that amounts to Rs. 20,000 crore before finalizing that plan as India does not have the supply chain and scale for making IT products and competes with various imports that are duty-free of the tech products.
The push by Apple comes at a time when Wistron, its iPhone supplier has just started its operations at their plant in Karnataka after last year angry workers went on a rampage. Apple has still not taken the manufacturer from Taiwan off from its probation.
But Apple declined to comment on the issue.
Most of its iPad is assembled by Apple in China, but the productions are fast diversified to various markets such as Vietnam and India for minimizing the impact of the US-China trade war and also the coronavirus crisis.
Foxconn is one of their top suppliers and they have been building assembly lines for MacBook laptops and iPads in Vietnam according to reports coming from late last year. Other assemblers of iPad include Compal Electronics from Taiwan and BYD Electronic International from China.
Apple is most likely to assemble its iPad in India by one of the major existing suppliers in the country but the plans can get delayed as India has made it difficult for BYD to enter because of the wariness to provide new technological business to companies in China.
A government official also said that the government has also asked Apple to get their iPad assembled through contract manufacturers with non-Chinese companies.
But it is still not clear which of the three contractors of Apple in India among Pegatron, Wistron and Foxconn are going to assemble iPads.
Glenda Bozeman – Business and Services
Glenda Bozeman writes Business articles for industries that want to see their Google search rankings surge. Her articles have appeared in a number of sites. Her articles focus on enlightening with informative Services sector needs. She holds the degree of Masters in Business and Marketing. Before she started writing, she experimented with various professions: computer programming, assistant marker, and others. But her favorite job is writing that she is now doing full-time.
