Some of the world’s biggest tech companies, including Dell Technologies Inc, HP Inc and Apple Inc supplier Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), have applied for state aid to manufacture laptops in India.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s US$2.1 billion financial incentive plan — a bid to boost local production of technology hardware such as laptops, personal computers, tablets and servers — has received an overwhelming industry response, Indian Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday.
Under Modi’s plan, companies are entitled to cash back of almost 5 percent of factory prices of finished products. Sourcing components locally would help manufacturers win more financial benefits.
32 companies, including units of homegrown contract manufacturers such as Optiemus Electronics Ltd and Dixon Technologies India Ltd, had applied for the incentives before the application window closed at midnight on Wednesday.
The Indian government is trying to replicate the success of incentives it introduced in 2020 to jump-start the local assembly of smartphones. That plan led Taiwanese Apple suppliers Foxconn, Wistron Corp (緯創) and Pegatron Corp (和碩) to ramp up in India, helping Apple to produce about 7 percent of its global iPhone output in the South Asian country in its last fiscal year.
Modi’s administration expects companies to make an incremental investment of 24.3 billion rupees (US$294 million) and produce an additional output worth 3.35 trillion rupees under the six-year plan.
“India is emerging as a very trusted supply chain partner and also a value chain partner because it has good capabilities in design,” Vaishnaw told reporters at a briefing in New Delhi.
Companies could begin production under the plan by early next year, he added.
Apple has yet to apply for incentives to locally assemble its MacBook laptops and iPad tablets, Indian government officials said.
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