The government on Monday extended the period of production-linked incentive scheme for large-scale electronics manufacturing with a focus on mobile phones by a year until 2025-26. The base year of the scheme 2019-20 remains the same but the companies will have the option to choose their five-year period either from the base year or the year 2020-21 for calculation of the incentives under the scheme. "Now we have extended the tenure of the scheme from 2020-21 to 2025-26. "Earlier, it would have ended in 2024-25.
The biggest worry is not the shrinking of the labour market, but the collapse of good jobs.
Two of Apple Inc's global vendors -- Wistron and Foxconn (through Han Hoi), which already manufacture Apple phones in India -- and a third entity, Pegatron, which will be setting up a new plant, have applied to the government to be eligible under the PLI scheme for large-scale electronics manufacturers.
In a communication to the empowered committee on PLI recently, the Indian Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA) has stated that except one player (Samsung), all the other eight players (which include vendors of Apple Inc) selected under the scheme were facing numerous challenges in fulfilling the qualification criteria.
In a major push towards 'Make in India', Apple Inc is manufacturing 70 per cent of the mobile phones, in value terms, that it sells in the domestic market, in India, according to sources aware of the development. This is a sharp rise from the figure of 30 per cent just two years ago and marks a major shift in Apple's strategy following the government's Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme that kicked off in FY'21. One of Apple's three vendors here, Foxconn, is currently manufacturing the best-selling model, the Apple 11, along with the Apple 10 and the Apple 12. Another contract manufacturer, Wistron, makes the Apple SE 2020. (The third, Pegatron, has yet to start production). The only models that are imported (they have limited volumes but high value) are the Apple 12 Pro and Pro Max.
To help 2G customers who have to buy a new phone to upgrade to 4G, the company had earlier introduced 4G feature phones, to make it affordable for them to make the switch.
Chinese mobile brands are deeply entrenched in the Indian market. A move to bar them may send a bold diplomatic message. But its cost for the local industry is anybody's guess. In the event that Chinese brands face curbs, two handset makers - Samsung and Apple - squarely stand to gain.
One of Apple's suppliers, Salcomp, will invest Rs 2,000 crore over the next five years to make components at a Nokia plant in Chennai. The facility, which has been closed for nearly 10 years, will be revived and made operational from March 2020.
Apple and Samsung are international players and should work as a team with domestic companies to transform India into a global powerhouse: IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
The new online store, which will be launched on September 23, will provide customers with the same premium experience found in Apple Store locations around the world, delivered by online team members who are ready to offer their expertise, Apple said in a statement.
The company captured just 2.4% of the mid-range smartphone market in India, a far cry from the 24.2% share Oppo's F3 commanded.
The Taiwanese maker is adopting a model of setting up smartphone assembly lines in multiple cities across India.
From real estate behemoths to infrastructure majors, from mobile device manufacturers to heavy engineering companies, they all made commitments to the tune of billions of dollars. Unfortunately, the reality has fallen far short.
Embargo on imports from a neighbouring country would send a chilling signal to foreign investors who look for transparency and companies with manufacturing units in India had requested the government to publish any change in port policy "to provide the business community with the visibility they need to function", says United States-India Strategic Partnership Forum.
The US tech major is planning to begin local production of its upcoming iPhone 12 by next April - within six months of its launch.
The development comes at a time when growing tension in US-China trade ties is forcing companies to explore alternative manufacturing sites in order to derisk operations.
Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met over 40 CEOs across broad swathes of industry, ranging from makers of mobile devices, auto components, food products to telecom networking equipment and pharmaceuticals. The agenda: To discuss how to make India an integral part of the global supply chain. The focus of the discussion would be the much touted yet not so well understood production-linked incentive scheme (PLI), the centrepiece of the government's drive to massively boost the manufacturing sector. To do so, the government has created a war chest of over Rs 197,000 crore to be paid out as incentives to over 14 industries in five years. There are three objectives to the scheme, two explicitly stated, one implied.
"We are investing in India... We've already launched an app accelerator centre. That's on top of working with the channel and looking at expanding our go-to-market in general," Cook said during the company's third quarter earnings call on Tuesday.
The government gave clearance to five global and five Indian players that have made a commitment to a production value of 12.5-trillion phones in five years under the Production Linked Incentive scheme.
Today, Vachani's public-listed company, Dixon Technologies, has gone beyond manufacturing just television sets. Armed with private equity funding from Motilal Oswal eight years ago, it has transformed itself into a Rs 4,400 crore electronic manufacturing services major, which now straddles lighting products, home appliances, feature phones, LED bulbs, amongst others. A two-part series looks at how two home-grown manufacturers are leveraging the govt's production-linked incentive scheme.
Apple's online launch is a symbol of success for FDI in single-brand retail, though there's no indication of how much the Silicon Valley major would invest in the country.
Apple Inc is preparing for the largest initial production run for its next iPhones by the end of the year.
According to sources, government officials have asked industry bodies and manufacturers to submit key concerns and requirements to begin manufacturing activity.
It had requested the government to grant it 15 years of duty-free import of components to assemble its iPhones in the country, sharing a road map to slowly indigenise products.
Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu is slated to meet senior executives of Apple on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos later this month.
Still, the earliest India will get to experience Apple online will be early 2020 and the company's first fully-owned signature store should be up around 2022 -- almost two decades after it had opened its first store worldwide, writes Nivedita Mookerji.
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