Apple CEO Tim Cook meets Rajeev Chandrasekhar, discusses manufacturing, exports and R&D

Minister of State in Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar (left) and Apple CEO Tim Cook at Electronics Niketan in New Delhi on April 19.

Minister of State in Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on April 19 met Apple CEO Tim Cook and discussed various topics including exports, job creation and 'broadening manufacturing'.

In a tweet, Chandrasekhar said, "It was a delight to meet @tim_cook CEO, @Apple and his team to engage on Apple’s strategic and long-term partnership with and in India’s digital journey."

"We discussed deepening and broadening manufacturing, exports, skilling of youth, expanding app n innovation economy and job creation," the tweet added.

The minister also spoke about the government's goal of deepening the country's electronics ecosystem and invited Cook to grow apps and take up research and development in the country.

Earlier in the day, Cook met Prime Minister Narendra Modi wherein he said that the company is committed to "growing and investing" across the country.

During his visit to the national capital, Cook also met IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and sought support for building the component ecosystem in the country to further boost manufacturing of its devices apart from support in skilling, people familiar with the matter told Moneycontrol.

Earlier this week, Apple announced that it now supports one million developer jobs in the country and the revenue payouts from its App Store payouts to Indian developers have “more than tripled since 2018”.

The company also has an iOS App Design and Development Accelerator in Bengaluru, which helps developers to help improve their apps. Since 2017, the accelerator has hosted sessions for more than 15,000 developers.

The Apple CEO visited India after nearly seven years to inaugurate the company's long-awaited stores in Mumbai and Delhi this week, apart from meetings with PM Modi, Vaishnaw and Chandrasekhar.

The Mumbai store, called Apple BKC, opened on April 18 at the Jio World Drive Mall, while the Delhi store, called Apple Saket, will be opened on April 20.

These developments come at a time when Apple is betting on India as a key manufacturing hub in order to diversify its manufacturing capabilities beyond China, thanks in part to incentives provided by the government through its production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for smartphones.

The company currently manufactures iPhones in India, including the latest iPhone 14, through contract manufacturers such as Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron, with plans to manufacture other products such as its wireless headphones AirPods in the country.

Apple clocked iPhone exports of about $5 billion-$5.5 billion from India in FY23, accounting for nearly half of the country's mobile phone exports, according to estimates from industry sources.

The Cupertino tech giant captured 25 percent of 'Made in India' smartphone shipments in terms of value in 2022, as compared to 12 percent in 2021, as per Counterpoint Research. The company's ‘Made in India’ shipments grew by 65 percent year-on-year (YoY) by volume and 162 percent YoY by value in 2022, it said.

Apple’s partners Foxconn and Wistron were the fastest growing manufacturers among the top 10 in Q4 2022, fuelled by increasing exports from Apple, the report added. Apple's work with Indian suppliers of all sizes supports hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country, the company stated on April 18.