India’s dream of becoming the “new factory of the world” to rival U.S. geopolitical rival China won’t be without growing pains, as formidable bureaucracy, lagging infrastructure and labyrinthine red tape have all historically dogged efforts by Apple and many other multinational companies in the market.
The ties between American companies and India as a manufacturing and supply chain partner are getting deeper. Boeing
’s recent deal with Air India is a prime example, a record-making agreement announced last month for the U.S. aerospace firm to supply India’s largest airline 220 aircraft valued at approximately $34 billion, the biggest purchase in the history of civil aviation.It will be a test not only for the companies but for the south Asian economic giant that’s pulling out all the stops to attract foreign companies in a bid to become a global manufacturing hub as Western corporations look to unwind their dependence on China, the de facto factory of the world.
The Boeing deal is indicative of the wider trend among global manufacturers including Apple, Samsung and Nokia, to accelerate manufacturing in India…
Apple may be on the way to 25% of iPhones made in India, from about 5%-7% Apple products currently, though not without growing pains. A recent FT report claimed Apple is running into issues with its first foray into India-based manufacturing with poor quality of products.
“India will take two to three years to learn the ropes in these advanced fields, but they will get there,” says Vivek Wadhwa, a Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur and academic, who recently returned from a trip to India where he met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi…
The International Monetary Fund’s forecast for India’s GDP growth stands at 6.1%, far outpacing China’s 4.4% rise, in 2023. Further, India is projected to leapfrog Germany and Japan to become the world’s third-largest economy over the next decade, and become a $10 trillion economy by 2035, per a Centre for Economics and Business Research report.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote earlier this month, “The CCP’s lunacy is India’s gain.”
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