Apple seeks incentive boost to make iPad in India

Companies have reportedly been offered nearly $1 billion over five years...

What you need to know

• Apple is seeking more favorable incentives from India's government in exchange for onshoring iPad manufacturing in the country.
• The Indian government is preparing another round of incentives to bring laptop and tablet manufacturing to the country.
• It has previously successfully enticed companies like Apple to bring smartphone production to the company.

Apple is reportedly lobbying the Indian government for stronger incentives, as the country seeks to bring the manufacturing of tablets and laptops to the country.

From Reuters:

Apple Inc 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 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", 2020 and the global pandemic highlighting the glaring need for a more diverse supply chain.

India is now lining up a similar scheme for the production of laptops and tablets:

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) over five years, the sources said. It's expected to be launched by the end of February.

Apple is reportedly lobbying for something like $2.7 billion, a larger package of incentives. This is because India "doesn't yet have the scale or the supply chain for making IT products" and is competing with duty-free imports.

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