India to provided subsidies to some big companies such as Apple supplier Foxconn

India will provide subsidies to some of the world’s biggest tech hardware companies, including Apple supplier Foxconn Technology. This is part of a scheme to boost domestic manufacturing and strengthen the South Asian country’s bid to become a major hub in the global electronics supply chain, according to the South China Morning Post.

The article says that New Delhi has approved applications for subsidies of 27 companies under the country’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme covering domestic assembly of desktop and laptop personal computers (PCs), tablets and other tech hardware, according to an official statement on Saturday.

“Twenty-three out of 27 approved applicants are ready to start manufacturing on day zero,” Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, told the South China Morning Post. “Four companies will start production in the next 90 days.”

In a November 1 Medium post, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said he thought Apple could start a New Product Introduction (NPI) of the standard iPhone 17 in India, as the tech giant wouldn’t develop a new iPhone in China for the first time.

“In 2023, 12–14% of global iPhone shipments are made in India. Foxconn owns 75–80% of the iPhone production capacity in India,” he writes. “If all goes well, the proportion of iPhones made in India will increase to 20–25% by 2024.”

Kuo says Foxconn’s production scale in Zhengzhou and Taiyuan, China, is expected to decrease by 35–45% and 75–85%, respectively, by 2024. The NPI for the standard iPhone 17 (to be launched in the second half of 2025) is expected to start kick-off in India in the second half of 2024, he adds.