After months of negotiations, Apple is set to start manufacturing iPhones in the Indian tech hub Bangalore, a government official says.
According to Priyank Kharge, Karnataka state minister for information technology, the iPhone production could start as early as April 2017 at a plant on the outskirts of Bangalore.
Apple has been hampered by a rule that prevented it from opening its own retail stores in the country. Foreign retailers can only sell products if 30% of the raw materials used to make them are sourced locally. The Bangalore manufacturing unit could pave the way for the first Apple stores in India.
Setting up a new plant in India would also be at odds with President Trump's call for American companies to create manufacturing jobs at home.
But it looks like Apple has decided India's rapidly ballooning smartphone market is too tempting to resist.
The South Asian nation currently has more than 300 million smartphone users, and is poised to overtake the U.S. as the world's second largest market for the devices this year.
Although, Apple is yet to make official confirmation of the Indian official's remarks.
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