CHENNAI: Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday inaugurated Taiwanese electronics giant Pegatron’s iPhone manufacturing facility at Chengalpattu. The plant was set up under the Centre’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. The State government claimed that the facility has an employment generation potential of 14,000 jobs.
The development comes at a time when Foxconn, another contract iPhone maker, is about to manufacture iPhone 14 at its Chennai plant. India has emerged as a viable alternative to Western and Taiwanese brands shifting or looking to shift their manufacturing bases out of China due to geopolitical tensions.
Speaking at the event, Stalin said his government aimed at making Tamil Nadu a smartphone-manufacturing hub, surpassing the current market leader China. He mentioned that efforts are being made to bring the entire smartphone manufacturing value chain to TN, including semiconductor (chip) manufacturing. “Recognising the importance of manufacturing electronic goods, the government has tagged it a sunrise sector.
Soon, Tamil Nadu Electronic Hardware Manufacturing Policy will be released with a focus on increasing domestic production manifold as well as grow exports.” Stalin further said TN government was trying to bring electronics companies that had applied under PLI to the State.
TN, with its electronics manufacturing hubs in Sriperumbudur near Chennai, Hosur and Coimbatore, has 20% of the country’s production capacity. Listing the major electronic hardware players, he said TN was also attracting investments in the manufacturing of computers, electronics parts, telecommunication devices and home appliances.
“This facility is a symbol of the partnership between the Centre and the states to help India achieve the target of 300 billion USD in electronics manufacturing, from the current 75 billion USD,” said Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar at the inauguration.
He said schemes like the Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) and PLI propelled the mobile phone sector’s growth. “Mobile phone exports from India in 2015-16 were near zero. They have now reached around Rs 50,000 crore. India used to be heavily dependent on imports of mobile phones. In contrast, today, 97% of mobile phones used in India are locally made,” he added.