In a big boost to Make in India, Telecom and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said India is set to get the biggest iPhone manufacturing plant in Hosur in Bengaluru. The Hosur iPhone manufacturing unit will employ around 60,000 people. Apple has outsourced the manufacturing of iPhone enclosures to Tata Electronics, which has a plant at Hosur, the media has reported.
This comes after a report by news agency Reuters that said iPhone supplier Foxconn is planning to expand its capacity in India by at least four times in the next two years. Apple iPhone models in India are manufactured by its three manufacturing partners Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron.
“Apple’s iPhone is now getting made in India and it’s the biggest plant in India is being set up at Hosur near Bengaluru. 60,000 people work in a single factory. The first 6,000 employees of these 60,000 employees are our tribal sisters from places nearby Ranchi and Hazaribagh. Tribal sisters have been trained to make Apple iPhone,” the Vaishnaw was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Foxconn’s decision points to a production adjustment as it faces production disruptions in China. The iPhone supplier has grabbed headlines in recent weeks, with tight virus restrictions at its Zhengzhou plant, the world’s largest iPhone factory, disturbing production and fuelling concerns over the impact of China’s virus policy on global supply chains.
Videos on Chinese social media sites surfaced that showed several Chinese migrant workers scaling a fence outside a Foxconn plant, which manufactures Apple iPhones. The videos show workers fleeing China’s largest iPhone plant in Covid-hit Zhengzhou, amid a lockdown triggered by the outbreak of coronavirus.
Meanwhile, Apple has added a new display supplier for its new iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max alongside its old panel supplier Samsung. The new display supplier for iPhone 14 Pro models is another South Korean tech major LG. Earlier, South Korean tech giant Samsung was the exclusive supplier of displays for these models, but now LG has split the orders of displays with it for the new iPhone 14 Pro models, says a recent report by Korean publication ETNews.