Apple is planning to build around 78,000 homes for its workers in India, the Economic Times reported on Monday. The project will be partially funded by the government, and will involve Indian conglomerate Tata, Taiwan-based major Foxconn, and Finnish firm Salcomp.
Foxconn, one of Apple’s largest suppliers, pledged to invest $1.5 billion in the project last year, to build nearly 35,000 of the housing units for workers at its factory in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.
Tata Electronics will be building 11,000 of the units, according to the Economic Times, which said the housing development was expected to result in more recruitment and increased production.
The large-scale provision of housing for company employees has already been seen in China, where Apple’s ‘iPhone City’ in Zhengzhou can accommodate up to 300,000 workers. Housing workers in clusters is believed to increase efficiency by reducing commutes.
Most iPhones are currently made in China but a number of older models are still manufactured in India and Vietnam. Apple has been planning to produce more of its flagship phones in India, the world’s most populous nation and an increasingly important market for the US-headquartered company.
Last December, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was laying the groundwork to begin manufacturing around 50 million phones in India each year to “diversify” its supply chain.
If the company’s plans are implemented successfully in India, the country could be manufacturing a quarter of all iPhones by the end of the decade, the Economic Times previously reported.
According to Bloomberg, India’s Tata Group is also planning to build a new iPhone assembly plant with approximately 20 assembly lines in southern India’s Tamil Nadu state. It will employ around 50,000 workers within the next two years. Tata already operates an assembly plant in neighboring Karnataka state.
The upscaling of manufacturing coincides with increasing demand for Apple’s premium phones in India. Last month, several Indian media outlets reported that Apple was set to record 700 billion rupees ($8.4 bln) in revenue during its most recent fiscal year. The company’s sales grew by around 40% during the previous two years, the reports noted. Last year, the company opened its first two exclusive retail stores in India, with CEO Tim Cook himself opening the outlets in the financial capital Mumbai, and the national capital New Delhi.
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