Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn scaled up its business to $10 billion in the country in the close of the last financial year. This became a big fillip for the Centre's ambitious 'Make in India' campaign and, more specifically, the production-linked incentive scheme.
Running parallel to an estimate for the same period, Apple's operations in India are pegged at USD 23.5 billion during FY24 itself, thereby cementing its status as one of the prime alternatives to China and Vietnam as far as manufacturing is concerned.
Foxconn is the foremost global supplier of Apple and has, in fact, invested $1.4 billion to date in India, promising more to follow. The purpose was specially outlined by its CEO and chairman, Young Liu, as a market having great potential that might become one of the future manufacturing bases globally.
Last week, he met up with some of the key leaders in India, among them Prime Minster Narendra Modi. Talking points that came out of it were investments Foxconn is doing in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Telangana. He also met individually with the chief minister and state cabinet ministers.
He appreciated the continuous investment gesture of Foxconn and applauded its contribution towards fulfilling India's dream of becoming a global leader in manufacturing.
Their discussions with PM Modi transcended to new arenas including AI, semiconductors and domestic electronics manufacturing. Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy invited the mnc to invest in the proposed Fourth city near Hyderbad stating that the location has high potential for growth both in the industrial and service sectors.
While Karnataka will host the setting up of Foxconn's iPhone assembly plant in Bengaluru Rural district with Rs 22,000 crore-worth investment, it is this investment that's processing fast and is likely to generate over 50,000 jobs.
The second is that Foxconn is developing an electric vehicle manufacturing and assembling facility for mechanical components, Project Cheetah, on the land it has leased in the district of Bengaluru.
Congress leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi too met Liu and discussed the future of technological innovation within the country and outside.
Compare this to the fact that revenues from India accounted for almost $8 bn for Apple in the last financial year, FY24 and in the first quarter of the current financial year FY25, it registered a record export value of circa $3.8 bn.
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