According to two individuals close to the Indian government, the administration is looking into ways to import part of Apple's iPad manufacture from China. This information was first published on Monday by CNBC.
According to the report, Apple and officials are now in conversation.
An inquiry for comment from Reuters was not immediately answered by the iPhone manufacturer.
According to persons involved with the negotiations, the business newspaper Economic Times revealed last month that the Tata Group was in talks to purchase Wistron's only manufacturing site in India for up to Rs. 5,000 crore.
According to the article, Tata Electronics, a division of the salt to software giant Tata Group, already provides parts to Apple from its Hosur facility in Tamil Nadu, which borders Karnataka.
Amid lockdowns connected to COVID in China and mounting tensions between Washington and Beijing, contract manufacturers supplying to American companies are increasingly resorting to India and other nations like Mexico and Vietnam.
According to a September Bloomberg article, Tata and Wistron were discussing forming a joint venture to produce iPhones in India.
At least three of Apple's international partners now build iPhones in India: Wistron in Karnataka, Foxconn in Tamil Nadu, and Pegatron in Chennai.
According to reports, Pegatron, an Apple contract manufacturer from Taiwan, started building the new iPhone 14 in India in November. Both Foxconn and Pegatron manufacture Apple's newest iPhone 14 in India; Foxconn started doing it in September.
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, has placed a significant wager on India since it started assembling iPhones there in 2017 through Wistron and later with Foxconn, in keeping with the Indian government's push for domestic manufacturing.
By 2025, according to J.P. Morgan analysts, Apple may produce one out of every four iPhones in India as the tech giant shifts some of its production there due to rising geopolitical tensions and stringent COVID-19 lockdowns.
