Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, several tech firms are reportedly looking to move out of China. Even Apple Inc. is planning to shift nearly 20% of its production capacity to India, according to sources close to the company’s plans.
Currently looking to scale up its local manufacturing revenues, the iPhone maker is seeking alternatives to China for shifting its production.
As per reports, the Cupertino-based company and Indian government’s senior officials discussed the move a few days.
“We expect Apple to produce up to $40 billion worth of smartphones, mostly for exports through its contract manufacturers Wistron and Foxconn, availing the benefits under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme,” a senior government official told ET.
Production-Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI):
- To boost local electronics manufacturing, the Indian government, on April 1, notified 3 schemes involving total incentives of around Rs 48,000 crore.
- The PLI scheme will give incentives of 4-6% on incremental sales of electronic products including photopolymer films, ATMP units (Assembly, Testing, Marking and Packaging).
- This scheme is likely to create around 8 lakh jobs.
- The two other notified schemes include EMC 2.0 (Electronics Manufacturing Clusters) and SPECS (Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronics Components and Semiconductors).
- The EMC 2.0 scheme would provide financial assistance for setting up of EMC (Electronics Manufacturing Cluster) projects.
India’s Rising Share in the Global Electronics Manufacturing Market:
Notably, India’s share in the global electronics manufacturing market was 3% in 2018, according to the Ministry of Electronics and IT. Also, the production of mobile phones skyrocketed to Rs 1.7 lakh crore in FY19.
