How Apple's India Strategy Bore Fruit

Behind the inauguration of two signature stores next week is a roller-coaster ride for the tech major in its effort to make India its alternative manufacturing and export hub

- SURAJEET DAS GUPTA

Till recently, his impending arrival was a closely guarded secret. But on April 18 and 20 when Apple Inc inaugurates its maiden company-owned stores in Delhi and Mumbai, Tim Cook, CEO, who is coming to India should likely be present.

The inauguration of the Apple stores will symbolise the Cupertino, California-based conglomerate´s ambitions to make India a manufacturing and export hub. They will also mark the end of a rollercoaster ride for Apple, ever since Cook´s first visit to India seven years ago. Then, it was reported, his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not go so well.

That was not unexpected. Days before his arrival, the government had rejected Apple´s request for import and sale of refurbished phones in the country. And the response to Cook´s proposal to set up Apple-owned retail stores was to ask the iPhone maker to manufacture in India.

It´s 2023, and the optics are quite different. The Apple Store inauguration, delayed by Covid, is just one element in the conglomerate´s India story. Apple is now a showcase success story of the government´s signature production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. It is one of the country´s largest exporters of mobile phones through its three vendors Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron pegged at over ₹ 40,000 crore or 45 per cent of total smartphone exports from India in FY23.