Make In India: Apple Says No To iPads & MacBooks

Tech giant won't take part in revised IT PLI

- Rishi Raj

MAINTAINING THAT IT is focused on manufacturing iPhones in India, Apple has declined to participate in the revised IT hardware production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, government sources said. This means that for the time being, it has decided against manufacturing iPads and MacBooks in the country.

However, the government thinks Apple may change its stance in future, so it is likely that the revised scheme, currently in the works, will have an eight-year tenure instead of five or six years set for other PLI schemes. Of the eight years, companies will be able to choose any six to qualify for incentives after meeting the laid down targets. Government sources said that given this flexibility, Apple can even enter the PLI scheme two years later.

According to Apple, of its global turnover of $394 billion for the year ended September 2022, (the company follows the September financial calendar), iPhones contributed around $205 billion. It thus makes sense for it to deepen the production of smartphones.

An Apple spokesperson declined to comment on an email query on the subject sent earlier last week.