“Now within just two and a half years, Tata will now start making iPhones from India”- Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Electronic and Technology Minister

Indian Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar announced that Tata will make iPhones in India for the Indian and global markets. As per the X post of Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar Tata will start making the iPhones within two and a half years. Wistron’s announcement shared with the post read that “Wistron Corp. held a Board of Directors Meeting today and granted approval for its subsidiaries, SMS InfoComm(Singapore) Pte.Ltd and Wistron Hong Kong Limited, to sign the Share Purchase Agreement with Tata Electronics Private Limited(TEPL) for the sale of its 100% indirect stake in Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Private Limited(WMMI)”.

The announcement further mentioned that the transaction price is tentatively estimated as USD 125 million.

PM @narendramodi Ji's visionary PLI scheme has already propelled India into becoming a trusted & major hub for smartphone manufacturing and exports.

Now within just two and a half years, @TataCompanies will now start making iPhones from India for domestic and global markets from… pic.twitter.com/kLryhY7pvL

— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) October 27, 2023

Tata was on the brink of finalizing the deal to acquire a prominent Apple Inc. supplier’s factory in early July of this year. The company aimed to acquire the Wistron factory located in the southern state of India in Karnataka. Other than Wistron, iPhones are assembled by Foxconn and Pegatron. Tata’s control over Wistron’s operation makes it the first Indian brand to make iPhones.

Earlier when the reports of ongoing negotiations between Tata and Wistron came out, it mentioned that Wistron had already committed Apple to ship 1.8 billion dollars worth of iPhones by March 2024 and triple the workforce of the factory by next year. And now these challenges will be handed to Tata to handle and fulfill.

Prior reports suggested that Wistron’s decision to sell its assembly unit in India was due to the challenges that the unit faced in achieving profitability under Apple’s terms and conditions. It is also reported that this motivated Wistron in India to not only focus on its core manufacturing operations and look for countries like Vietnam and Mexico.