Tamil Nadu is expected to formalize agreements with Taiwan based Pegatron and Tata Electronics around Pongal festival to facilitate establishing units to manufacture Apple products, multiple sources said. Tamil Nadu is set to start 2021on a positive note on the industrial investments front by signing two major MoUs, among others, in the electronics manufacturing segment in January.
Another MoU will be signed by the government with Tata Electronics, which will make components for Apple products. It is investing Rs5,000 crore and will employ 18,000 people in the first phase. The company too has lined up higher investments and employment opportunities in subsequent phases. It has already broken ground and started construction work at GMR SEZ near Hosur in Krishnagiri district. The MoU will formalize the investment plans and tune it in line with the state government’s investment incentives. When contacted by TOI, state government officials declined to comment. “Nothing has been finalized yet and companies are generally in talks with more than one state,” an official said. In the case of Pegatron, the Taiwan company’s board had recently cleared the investment plan for a new plant in India to make iPhones. It was in talks with both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
The Taiwan-based Pegatron is the second largest manufacturer of Apple products and has chosen Mahindra City as the site for its proposed plant in India. It is likely to invest around Rs1,200 crore in the first phase to employ about 14,000 people. A subsequent phase will see the company doubling its investment and employment potential, sources with leading international property advisories said.
Foxconn, Pegatron and Wistron are the three leading makers of phones for Apple. While Foxconn is already located near Chennai in Tamil Nadu, Wistron opted for Karnataka. Wistron’s Karnataka operations recently witnessed a labour strife that resulted in arson and large-scale damage to property, even though the company said the manufacturing equipment remained safe.
In September, Tamil Nadu government unveiled its ambitious Electronic Hardware Manufacturing Policy seeking to transform the state into a globally competitive Electronics Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) destination. The policy sought to increase Tamil Nadu’s electronics industry output to $100 billion by 2025 and to contribute 25% of total electronic exports to the world from India by that time. In order to promote electronic manufacturing clusters, Tamil Nadu has categorised the districts into Class A, B and C for administering state-level incentives. To cater to the workforce needs of the industry, the state has plans to train one lakh youngsters on skilled and semi-skilled streams.
