Apple Seeking Incentives From Indian Government to Begin Local iPad Manufacturing

Apple is seeking more favorable incentives from India’s government in exchange for bringing iPad manufacturing to the country.

Reuters reports that Apple is angling to participate in a new scheme to boost India’s exports of computer products, part of what government and industry sources say are plans to bring iPad tablet manufacturing to the South Asian country.

As the report notes, India has invested some $6.7 billion USD in smartphone production incentives and subsidies, offered to the likes of Apple and its manufacturing partners in exchange for bringing production and jobs to India. The scheme has worked, and Apple has “steadily raised production of iPhones in India”, with the global pandemic highlighting the glaring need for a more diverse supply chain.

Now the government is preparing to unveil another incentive to drive local manufacturing of IT products including tablets, laptops and servers, three sources closely involved in the drafting of the plan told Reuters.

The new performance-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, which offers cash-back to manufacturers for exports, will have a budget of up to 70 billion rupees ($964.5 million USD) over five years, the sources said. It’s expected to be launched by the end of February.

In India, Apple will likely have iPads assembled by one of its existing suppliers in the country as early as this year, two of the sources said.

Apple assembles a bulk of its iPads in China, but is fast diversifying production to markets such as India and Vietnam to minimize the impact of the U.S.-China trade war and the coronavirus crisis.