New Delhi: Make in India is likely to get a push, when PM Modi meets Apple CEO Tim Cook during his forthcoming US visit. Apple is understood to be looking to at investing in manufacturing capacity in India.
Apart from Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, PM Modi is also expected to meet Google’s Pichai, Facebook’s Zuckerberg and Adobe Systems Inc’s Shantanu Narayen. Modi is also scheduled to attend a 100-guest dinner — with top chief executives from companies specialising in infrastructure and manufacturing — hosted by Time Inc. Meanwhile, J P Morgan will be hosting an exclusive meet for 15 top CEOs specialising in the financial sector with Modi. Modi is also scheduled to meet News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch and Tesla’s iconic Elon Musk. The meet with the latter is expected to have renewable energy as one of the themes.
PM Modi will try and persuade Apple to invest in manufacturing and research & development (R&D) in India. Foxconn the manufacturuer of most Apple products, recently concluded a deal with the Govt. of Maharastra to invest $5 billion in its own manufacturing facility in Maharashtra.
Apple on its part is likely to consider manufacturing in India for third country markets as also consider manufacturing refurbished products.
Refurbishing is not allowed as per India’s Industrial Policy presently, and Apple’s interest on this score might alter the playing field.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg will be hosting a town hall meeting with Modi on September 27 at the social media giant’s headquarters.
PM Modi will be pushing his government’s ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’ campaigns to drive entrepreneurship and innovation, all the while trying to persuade global honchos to invest in India.
