Over the past three years, India has become a key location for Apple to produce iPhones. Take an example of this: The corporation produced twice as many smartphones in FY24 as it did in FY23, with a total value of $14 billion. Thus, one out of every seven iPhones produced worldwide is being put together in India.
Over 70% of this $14 billion production, according to reports, has been sold by India to nations in Asia, the US, and Europe. In addition, FY24 is the first year when Apple's monthly output averaged over $1 billion, as opposed to FY23's $620 million monthly average.
Three of Apple's suppliers—Foxconn Hon Hai, Pegatron, headquartered in Tamil Nadu, and Wistron, which is currently owned by the Tata group and is situated in Karnataka—have accomplished this output.
Foxconn Hon Hai has contributed more than 67% of the entire output, according to industry data and information provided by the suppliers. The remaining 33% has been donated by Pegatron and Wistron together.
The three businesses are all involved in the production-linked incentive (PLI) program for smartphones run by the government. Of the 14 PLI schemes, the smartphone PLI scheme is thought to be the most effective on a number of fronts, including investments, jobs created, exports, and incremental output over the base year 2019–20.
It is mandatory for all three Apple suppliers to invest <1,000 crore during the course of the PLI scheme's five-year duration. All three have outperformed their initial investing plans.
Foxconn Hon Hai has already met the requirements to be eligible for the PLI bonus for FY24, while Pegatron and Wistron are also believed to have produced at least Rs 15,000 crore during the fiscal year. In other words, although each of the three businesses will be eligible for PLI on an individual basis in the third year, Foxconn is anticipated to surpass the cutoff.
Apart from Apple's three suppliers, two other major players in the smartphone PLI program are Samsung and Bharat FIH, another Foxconn subsidiary. Participating in this plan are the Indian businesses Lava, Bhagwati (Micromax), Padget Electronics (Dixon), UTL Neolyncs, and Optiemus Electronics.
However, Samsung and Apple's suppliers have been driving output in the foreign firms area thus far.
The PLI program, which lasted for five years and ended in 2026, gave each organization the option to select any five years in a row. It began in 2020.
Ashwini Vaishnaw, the minister of communications and IT, recently told FE that large international electronics companies are getting ready to build massive campuses in the nation after establishing their manufacturing operations there. A number of facilities manufacturing a variety of their products will be located on these campuses.