A report published in the Times of India indicates that the production of Apple MacBooks may shift to India soon. The government is also planning to increase the overall scope of the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme to ₹20,000 crores for the IT hardware sector. Currently, the incentive scheme stands at ₹7,380 crores. Keeping in mind Apple’s ‘China-plus-one strategy’, the Government of India certainly wants to enhance the manufacturing ecosystem in the country, particularly for Apple products.
“We have tasted success with the iPhone production as Apple's all the top manufacturers – Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron – are now making smartphones worth billions of dollars in the country. The next step for us is to get the production of MacBook and other products such as iPad in India," said a source in the Ministry about the same, as reported by TOI.
“We feel the earlier scheme was not sufficient to meet the disability that companies would have if they manufactured in India, Thus, with an enhanced incentive plan and a larger fund outlay, the new scheme will surely prompt companies to invest and also make in India,” said TOI after citing a source.
The government feels that ensuring other tech giants can broaden their manufacturing scope in India can help turn India into a 'global manufacturing hub'.
“These are big companies that need to service markets across the world. With the eco-system gradually building in India after the PLI schemes, we are confident that an enhanced and friendlier scheme will bear results in the IT hardware,” a source said.
Apple is still in talks with the Indian government and, at the moment, the timelines for manufacturing have not been revealed.