Apple is betting on India to make it a major iPhone-producing country. Now, reports have come in that the Cupertino-based tech giant’s manufacturing ecosystem has created nearly 50,000 direct jobs in India since the smartphone production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme became effective in 2021. According to a The Economic Times report citing government officials, 100,000 indirect jobs were created by Apple Apple’s component suppliers and contract manufacturers like Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron, collectively.
Not only this, the iPhone maker has several component suppliers in India including Sunwoda, Avary, Foxlink, and Salcomp. As per recent reports, Finland’s Salcomp is planning to double its workforce in the country to nearly 25,000 over the next three years as the company is looking for an alternative outside of China. Currently, Salcomp employs about 12,000 people in Chennai with 85 per cent of them being women.
Samsung, the South Korean tech giant, is also a beneficiary of the PLI scheme. The company employs more than 11,500 people at its Noida plant, the officials said, as per the report.
Earlier in January, Jabil, an Apple supplier started to manufacture components for AirPods in the country. The company is also shipping enclosures for Apple AirPods to China and Vietnam. Reports show that Apple has been planning to shift most of its operations from China to India by 2027 and that the tech giant is also setting up its retail stores.
It is interesting to note that India accounted for 10-15% of Apple’s production capacity at the end of 2022, and with the expansion of AirPods, this number will reach new highs by the end of 2023. It is also worth knowing that the Indian government has approved over a dozen of Apple’s existing manufacturing partners to set up joint ventures.
This move represents a significant milestone for India’s electronics manufacturing sector and will lead to a robust local supply chain for Apple products in the future. It is also a crucial step towards the Indian government’s goal of making the country a global hub for electronics manufacturing.
It has been long speculated that after iPhone, iPads will be the next thing that will be pushed to production in India. But AirPods beat the punch, and with the upcoming launch of iPhone 15 in September 2023, things will start pacing soon.
