MAY 20239Apple CEO Tim Cook met Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, and discussed how to further boost local manufacturing and iPhone exports. Apple logged a record over $5 billion in iPhone exports from India in FY23. "It was a delight to meet Tim Cook, CEO, Apple and his team to engage on Apple's strategic and long-term partnership with and in India's digital journey". The minister said in a tweet. "We discussed deepening and broadening manufacturing, exports, skilling of youth, expanding app an innovation economy and job creation", Chandrasekhar added. Mobile phone exports rose from Rs.45,000 crore in FY22 to Rs.90,000 crore in FY23, surpassing the previous estimate of Rs.75,000 crore. The outstanding performance of the performance-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for mobile phones serves as an inspiration for other electronic segments to emulate this success in increasing manufacturing and exports. The Apple ecosystem in India has generated over one lakh new direct jobs in manufacturing in the last two years, according to Chandrashekhar. "About 70 percent of these are 19-24-year-old women, who are starting their careers, acquiring skills and improving the ease of living for their families", he added. Apple began manufacturing iPhones in India in 2017, and since then, the company has worked with suppliers to assemble new iPhone models and produce a growing number of components. State-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) intends to set up 240 MW of renewable power capacity at the cost of Rs.1,600 crore during the current year, a senior company executive said."We will soon be setting up solar and wind power facilities. We have plans to set up 240 MW of solar and wind energy farms in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra at an estimated cost of Rs 1,600 crore", said Sukhmal Kumar Jain, director (marketing) at BPCL. Approximately 50 MW solar projects are already under construction at BPCL's facilities. The company is targeting a captive requirement for its refineries first, which is about 350 MW. Jain added that BPCL is exploring organic and in-organic opportunities as well as planning to bid for industry tenders going forward. "We undertook multiple solar projects of smaller size to gain experience. We are now confident to take up bigger projects and shall be participating in renewable energy tenders in the future", Jain said. BPCL has committed to offset emissions from refining operations and from the energy it uses by 2040, referred to as Scope 1 and 2 emissions. It is thus scaling up its renewable energy portfolio from less than 50 MW today to 1 gigawatt by 2025 and 10 gigawatts by 2040. This January, the company signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Rajasthan for setting up the renewable energy power plant. The capacities being built in the short term would be to meet the state-run company's captive demand, primarily from refineries and a proposed petrochemicals unit. BPCL could also sign power purchase agreements with buyers. BPCL WILL PUT UP 240 MW RENEWABLE POWER FACILITIES, TO BID FOR COMPANY TENDERSTIM COOK, RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR DISCUSS BOOSTING MANUFACTURING, EXPORTSTOP STORIES
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