Apple partner Wistron is reportedly hiring up to 10,000 extra staff to man its iPhone plant in Narasapura, India, claims a new report today.
According to The New Indian Express, the Taiwanese contract manufacturer is expected to start the commercial production of iPhones at its plant in the Kolar district in the next few days.
The manufacturing facility in Kolar is expected to generate around 10,000 jobs. As per the Karnataka Industrial Policy, 70 per cent of jobs should be given to locals. Accordingly, at least 7,000 people from Karnataka are expected to get jobs here. The company is believed to have already recruited about 2,000 people so far.
"We are happy to note that recruitment process has begun," said Gaurav Gupta, Principal Secretary to India’s Industries and Commerce Department. He added that they are “going to start production soon." Wistron has not yet confirmed the news.
The new plant, which came online in April, is about 40 miles outside of Bengaluru, and is believed to specialize in PCB assembly.
A PCB serves as a bed for key iPhone components like processors, storage, and memory, and usually accounts for about half the cost of a smartphone. That makes PCB assembly in the country a major boon for Apple, as it avoids taxes levied by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to boost local manufacturing and create new jobs.
Apple has been setting up iPhone manufacturing hubs in India ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi began promoting his "Made in India" initiative, which requires that 30 percent of products sold by foreign companies be manufactured or produced within the country.
India is also the world's second largest smartphone market, but just one in four Indians are said to own a smartphone, providing Apple with an opportunity to sell iPhones to millions of new customers, while also diversifying its supply chains and moving away from its heavy reliance on China as an operations base.
A report from The Times of India earlier this month claimed an unnamed Apple supplier is planning to move a significant amount of production operations to India, with the aim of accommodating the export of $5 billion worth of devices from India.
Apple suppliers Wistron, Pegatron, Foxconn, and Samsung, are all expected to set up production facilities in India, and Foxconn has already announced that it plans to invest as much as $1 billion in India, and has already established its first manufacturing plant in the country.
Top Rated Comments
Nop people are now hating china and it’s bullying nature. China forces all companies to reveal their IP, atleast India is not doing that. Also putting all eggs in chinese basket was wrong move by Apple. Also India is USA ally and big buyer of USA defense equipment which creats job in USA.They didn't do this go get out of China, they did this because India has some of the strongest protectionist policies in the world. The US should impose the same on India.
It is due to Quantity issues to supply products for the globe. India didn’t have that kind of scale of operation to fulfill anything beyond India. Samsung, LG, Hyundai, Daimler, Suzuki, Honda, Toyota etc having plants mostly trying to satisfy domestic demands. Previously infrastructure was also an issue where transportation was a bottleneck. India is a signatory if IP and honours patents hence they don’t hijack IPs and start putting their brands and compete with your customers later. This is one of the reasons India seems to be behind but in reality they don’t want to do International business by breaking the laws.Is it really good? I have not seen anything manufactured in India in my life (except for clothing). Could there be some quality issues?
Once the landscape and ecosystems are in place learning and mastering will not be an issue.