iPhone 16 now Made in India: A major milestone in global launch

New Delhi: Union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday said Apple’s latest iPhone 16 is being produced and launched globally from the Indian manufacturing plants.

The ‘Make in India’ new iPhones will be available in the country on September 20 and will be exported to other nations as well, he said.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative is now driving the creation of iconic products for the world,” the minister posted on X social media platform.

iPhone exports continue to clock around $1 billion each month thanks to Union government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. According to the government, in the ecosystem of Apple alone, more than 2 lakh people have got employment and there is a good amount of growth.

The iPhone exports from India surged sharply to $1 billion in 2023-24 from $6.27 billion in 2022-23. Overall, the company’s India operations reached 23.5 billion dollars in value in the last fiscal (FY24). iPhone factories in the country are set to hire more than 10,000 people directly during the peak festival period. Apple aims to manufacture more than 50 million iPhones in India per year, as it aims to shift some of the production out from China.

Tata Electronics, which runs two plants for Apple, is the biggest job creator in the Apple ecosystem, along with Foxconn and Pegatron.

As tech giants like Apple continue to shift iPhone manufacturing to India amid political stability and friendly government policies, the country captured almost half of the lost market (40.5 per cent) from China and Vietnam in the last fiscal year.

Mobile phone exports from the country touched nearly $16 billion in FY24 from $11 billion in FY23. The overall electronic manufacturing in the country is expected to reach around $250 billion in the next 5 years.