Apple plan to make India a manufacturing hub makes economic sense: Jyotiraditya Scindia

Approval for Starlink is a complicated issue but is in the final stages, minister of state for communications Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani said Tuesday, adding that the Elon Musk-owned satcom company will at best play a minor role in providing connectivity in India as compared to traditional telecom companies.

"It is a little complicated issue (permit for Starlink). We have to look from multiple angles. Security is one of them. Definitely, since it is in the final stages, we will get back on that," Pemmasani said, while speaking on the sidelines of the Bharat Telecom event.

He added that the security rules for satcom announced Monday night were crucial, especially in the present scenario where hostile nation Pakistan is making an attempt to hack the country's system.

Speaking at the same event, telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that Apple has decided to move its entire mobile phone production to India in the coming years. He added that investment in the country makes economic sense for every original equipment manufacturer and isn't an act of goodwill.

"Apple has decided to source and produce all its mobile phones in India in the years to come," Scindia said. "When you invest in India, you are choosing affordability, you are choosing reliability, you are choosing originality."

Speaking at the event, organised by the Telecom Equipment and Services Export Promotion Council in partnership with the Department of Telecommunications, Pemmasani said around 15% of global iPhone output now comes from India, highlighting the country's increasing participation in the global supply chain for the US-based technology firm Apple's products.

Their remarks come after Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company would source the majority of iPhones sold in the US from India in the June quarter, in a bid to avoid the high tariffs imposed by the Donald Trump administration on shipments from China. Production in China will cater to iPhone sales in other regions.

Scindia further said the Centre is preparing a $4-billion investment plan to connect every village in India with high-speed broadband to achieve 100% telecom connectivity saturation in remote regions. "Since June of last year, 17,000 towers out of a planned 27,000 towers have been set up in nearly 36,000 villages," the minister said. He added that 99% of India's villages have been connected by 5G within 22 months of rollout, with more than 470,000 towers set up with almost ₹4 lakh crore of investment.