No proposal from Apple to make iPhones in India as yet

Apple CEO Tim Cook during his visit met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and spoke of possibilities of manufacturing, but the company has not submitted any proposal with the IT Ministry to set up its plant in India, Parliament was informed today.

Cook visited Hyderabad on May 20 to launch the technology centre relating to their maps division in presence of Chief Minister of Telangana K Chandrashekar Rao, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology P P Chaudhary said in a reply to the lok Sabha.

"He also called on the Prime Minister on May 21, 2016. He shared Apple Inc's future plans for India and spoke of possibilities of manufacturing and retailing in India. There is no proposal with this ministry from Apple Inc to set up a manufacturing unit in the country," Chaudhary said.

After meeting senior officials from manufacturing giant Foxconn, partner of Apple, the then telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in May had said the Cupertino-based technology major was coming to manufacture iPhones in India.

Apple has been lobbying hard for exemption from the mandatory 30 per cent local sourcing on the ground that its products have such high-end technology that these cannot be sourced locally here.

The government in June relaxed FDI norms by giving a three-year exemption from local sourcing to foreign players in single-brand retail and a further five-year relaxation for 'state-of-the-art' and 'cutting-edge' technology.