Foxconn the largest contract electronic manufacturing company may soon manufacture iPhones for Apple in India.  The company will start production of Apple products in the western state of India, Maharashtra. The information is given by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis himself. He made the announcement after his trip of China with the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. The possible site for the production of iPhone could be either Aurangabad or Pune. As per one report of DNA “India has the world’s largest number of cell phones, but only 7% of these mobile handsets are manufactured in the country. The rest is imported,” Fadnavis added.
iPhone Production In India: A Milestone for ‘Make in India’ Program
It seems that Foxconn has accepted the much hyped ‘Make in India’ proposal and announced the big investment in India for setting up the plant for production of Apple units. Â The plant could be the biggest base of Foxconn in India and would eventually create number of employment opportunities for people in India. The ‘Make in India’ program not only focuses on attracting investment from abroad but also on the employment generation in the country.
To accelerate the process, India’s Information Technology and Communication minister Ravi Shankar Prasad met Apple’s regulatory Head for India, Middle East Europe and Africa and discussed the possibilities of setting up research and development units in India, similar to what United Kingdom, China, and Israel have got.
Foxconn’s chairman Terry Gou has recently confirmed that the company is eyeing on setting up 10 – 12 facilities in India by 2020, rejecting earlier rumors of 3 facilities. These facilities would take care of manufacturing, R&D and data center requirements. Mr. Gou also confirmed that the company will spend ‘few dollar dollars’ to set up these facilities in the next few years.
Foxconn: The Most Experienced Player
This is not going to be the first unit of Foxconn in India. The company has got adequate experience working in the Indian condition as it was manufacturing the phones for Nokia. The Foxconn Technology Group had three plants on NH-4 which connects Chennai and Bangalore. But after the acquisition of Nokia by Microsoft company stopped its production in all three plants. One of those was in Nokia Special Economic Zone which got closed in February.
Foxconn also manufactures mobile phones and other components for other giants of industry as well including HTC, Acer, BlackBerry, Nokia, Microsoft, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Huawei, Sony, Xiaomi and many others. The re-entry of Foxconn in the Indian market will also lead to more investment from other leading brands for the production of their units. India is the most suitable pick for all manufacturers after china because of it high population so the low labor charges and potential economic growth.
Foxconn, apparently, doesn’t want to take any chance of any delay or mistake in judging the new region for its production. The company has hired the person who possesses a fair experience of Indian Scenario Josh Foulger, Ex- senior executive of Nokia. Josh Foulger had also played an important role in setting up of Nokia’s Chennai unit.
Foxconn Technology Group has not made any comment on the investment the company will do in India. Earlier, it was rumored that the company was willing to buy the Nokia’s Chennai plant for $ 2 billion but the deal couldn’t advanced due to unknown reasons. It is being speculated now that the company is all set to make more the equal amount of investment in its new plant.
Apple itself gave a try to enter into Indian Markets officially after the end of its contract with Reliance. Apple also communicated to Indian Government to make the country’s Foreign Direct Investment Policy bit liberal in single brand retail business. The latest development will open the door for Apple to enter directly in India. Ultimately, it will lower the price of Apple products in India which was the major issue faced by Apple buyers.
