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What you need to know

  • India has approved a plan to boost manufacturing and exports of IT goods in the country.
  • It will incentive companies to make laptops and tablets in the country.
  • It could bring iPad manufacturing to the nation, just like a similar plan did for the iPhone.

India has approved a plan to bring local manufacturing of IT products to the country, in a move that could see Apple's iPad and Mac made in the country.

From Reuters:

India on Wednesday approved a 73.5 billion rupee ($1.02 billion) plan to boost local manufacturing and exports of IT products such as laptops, tablets, personal computers and servers, the technology minister said.

The production-linked incentive (PLI) plan will help India export IT goods worth 2.45 trillion rupees, minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told a news conference.

Last week it was reported that Apple was gearing up to participate in the scheme which could bring iPad manufacturing to India. India has successfully invested some $6.7 billion into smartphone production, offering companies subsidies and incentives to make products there, a move which has already seen a big uptake in iPhone manufacturing in the country.

It was previously reported Apple was lobbying for a larger $2.7 billion package, however, the scheme passed is worth only the $1 billion first reported.

Prasad told outlets the focus of the scheme "is to get global champions to India and to make national champions out of local manufacturers", creating 180,000 jobs in the process. Apple manufacturing partners Foxconn and Wistron, as well as Pegatron, have already set up manufacturing bases in the country to make the iPhone. India is now the world's second-biggest manufacturer of smartphones after China.