"Watch Out, China": Union Minister To NDTV On Apple's Bullish India Plans

India will gallop in electronics manufacturing and pull a major chunk of the sector away from China, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar told NDTV in an interview, two days after Apple CEO Tim Cook personally opened the company's first retail store in India. The minister said China will have to "watch out" as India is on the path to becoming a giant in manufacturing.

Tim Cook's move underscored the US tech titan's increasing focus on India as a key sales market and alternative manufacturing hub to China.

"One of the great things about being in this job is to enjoy the feedback from people like Tim Cook and Pat Gelsinger (Intel CEO) and all the big leaders of the technology world come to India and honestly say, 'We are so impressed with what India is doing'," Mr Chandrasekhar, the Union Minister of State for Electronics and Technology, told NDTV.

Apple is betting big on India - home to the second-highest number of smartphone users in the world, after China - with a second store opened in Delhi today. The world's biggest company in terms of market value is also expanding its manufacturing footprint in India as it seeks to diversify its supply chain away from a heavy dependence on neighbouring China.

"I tell you, it is the highlight of my life to be sitting in this position, to hear these big guys come from all over the world and say that India is deeply impressive. And he (Tim Cook) said exactly that. He said, 'Look, we are so impressed with what India has done in electronics manufacturing in the last few years, we want Apple to continue to grow in India'. I certainly think, it is my view, the Apple-India partnership can triple and quadruple in the coming years in terms of investments, jobs and the sheer opportunities not just in the Indian market but exports as well," Mr Chandrasekhar said, adding he is optimistic that it is a "win-win" deal.

"It won't be a binary situation. In future, it won't be China or India, but China and India and Vietnam and all of us will be part of this more diversified, less concentrated global value chains that the world today asks. In the past, it was all concentrated around one country, which is China. The world post-Covid wants a much more trusted, diversified, resilient and India certainly is poised to participate in re-growing of the supply chain," the Union Minister told NDTV.

"I certainly think we are at a historical moment when India can be a talent hub not only for its aspirations, but for the world too. We are in the process of shaping and helping young India join this talent point. Certainly, exciting times, watch out China," he said.

India is also becoming central to Apple's plans to shift its production of devices and components away from China amid diplomatic tensions between Washington and Beijing and the supply chain fallout from strict Covid policies.

Just 1 per cent of Apple's iPhones were made in India in 2021, but that jumped to 7 per cent last year, Bloomberg News reported last week, citing sources. The company began manufacturing iPhones in India in 2017 through Taiwanese suppliers Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron.

Tim Cook said in a February earnings call that "India is a hugely exciting market for us and is a major focus". "We are, in essence, taking what we learned in China years ago and how we scale...  and bringing that to bear," he had said.

With inputs from AFP