The government on Monday urged Apple to broaden its manufacturing base in India, and use the country as an export hub, as it promised to layout new incentives and sops to give an impetus to electronics as well as phone industry in coming 2-3 months.
IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said Apple's manufacturing investment so far is only the "tip of the iceberg". He affirmed that the government wants companies like Apple & Samsung to have a "robust presence" in India.
The minister promised the company of providing it with Human Resource, investment-friendly policies, and incentives for producing in India, and also for exports. Prasad said the two big international players in the Indian smartphone market, Apple and Samsung should work in collaboration and assist domestic companies to make India into a formidable electronic hub.
Apple in collaboration with Taiwanese contract manufacturer Wistron, at present, produces iPhone 6s and 7 in India. According to the sources Apple is contemplating assembling more models in the country, even though, hitherto, there has been no formal confirmation from the company about the same.
India is endeavouring to become a global focal point for electronics amid escalating trade tensions between the USA and China. Due to this, the ministers are racking their brains with the CEO in hour-long meetings.
India is striving to bolster its position as a global hub in smartphone and component manufacturing; offering incentives to encourage international brands to expand its business in India. It also aims to target supply chain and ancillary firms and give a boost to value addition.
The government is also planning to unveil a complete roadmap consisting of incentives and sops that will speed up the manufacturing and export commitments of these companies. Prasad said the government will roll out, in the next 2-3 months, a complete roadmap including incentives and sops that will act as a catalyst for companies to deepen their manufacturing and export commitments.
Niti Aayog and IT ministry are in discussion to devise a plan in this regard. The plan to incentivise manufacturing includes the introduction of sops by states as well as conducive policies related to land and energy.
He also maintained the need for India to become a 5G hub and also emphasized the need for an ecosystem that is backed by Intellectual property (IP), patents and Research and Development. The minister asserted that in spite of economic instability worldwide the environment is congenial in India and requested them to invest and manufacture in the country.
Renowned electronics and manufacturing companies like Vivo, Oppo, Qualcomm, Xiaomi, Dell, HP, Bosch, Cisco, Flextronics, Foxconn, Nokia, LG, Panasonic, Intel, Wistron, and Sterlite Technologies participated the meeting.
Magazine
.jpg "Government urges Apple to increase manufacturing and exporting in India")
