India offering US$550 million incentives to woo Apple, tablet makers, to challenge China’s production base
- India has been ramping up efforts to attract global firms through initiatives, as China’s allure wanes due to political tensions and its Covid policy
- India wants to boost production of tablets and laptops to cut imports and make the country an export hub in the longer term
The federal technology ministry has floated the revamped programme to electronics industry executives for consultation, including payments that could exceed a half a billion dollars per company, people familiar with the matter said. India wants to boost production of tablets and laptops to cut imports and make the country an export hub in the longer term.
The plan offers as much as 45 billion rupees (US$549 million) per manufacturer, according to a government document seen by Bloomberg News. To qualify, foreign companies would need to invest 7 billion rupees (US$85.6 million) in India over five years on top of outlays they’ve made through March 2021. The incentives would depend on local procurement of components and could go as high as the equivalent of about 6 per cent of the sales of finished products.
The plan could change after consultation with the industry. Last year, India launched a programme worth 73.5 billion rupees (US$900 million) to ramp up local manufacturing and build exports of IT products such as laptops, tablets and personal computers, but the effort failed to attract companies due to a perceived small size of the incentives.