Apple may start online sales of its devices in India within the month

Apple is poised to start online sales of its devices in India within months, reports Bloomberg, quoting an unnamed “person familiar with the matte.” The tech giant would benefit from new rules making the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market more attractive to foreign brands, the report adds (a subscription is required to read the entire article).

On Wednesday, India eased rules that forced companies such as Apple to source 30% of their production locally — a requirement the iPhone maker has been lobbying against for years — to include exports as part of the requirement. The move is purportedly aimed at attracting higher foreign investment at a time when global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows have slowed, but those coming into India have been robust. 

“The relaxation of mandatory 30% local sourcing norm will spur the growth of the Indian economy, and will potentially help in attracting large players in the single-brand retail sector, including the likes of Apple,” said Prabhu Ram, head of intelligence group at Cybermedia Research, told the Economic Times.