Tata Group to soon become India’s first homegrown iPhone maker: Report

Tata Group is currently working on opening India’s first home iPhone maker. The company is planning to take over an iPhone manufacturing plant located in South India and owned by Taiwanese manufacturing giant, called Wistron Corporation. A report by Bloomberg reveals, this deal will complete by the end of March this year.

Tata Group to take over Wistron’s iPhone plant soon

As per the report, “The two firms discussed various potential tieups, but talks have now centered on Tata taking a majority of a joint venture.” Once the deal comes through, Tata Group will be overseeing the operations at the said plant with the help of Wistron Corp.

Notably, Tata Group or Wistron Corp have acknowledged the news or made any such announcements.

For the unversed, Apple’s iPhones are mostly assembled by Wistron and Foxconn. After Tata Group takes over the Wistron plant, it will become India’s first step to challenge China’s dominance in electronics.

The report further reveals that Tata Group wants to finish the process by March 31 as it wants to be eligible for the government incentive. The next cycle of incentives will start from April 1, the start of India’s financial year.

Although, both the involved firms are yet to make the final announcement regarding the deal, N Ganapathy Subramaniam, operating chief at Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., the IT giant, told Bloomberg, “I am not directly involved in that, but it should be really good for India because this is going to create an opportunity in India to manufacture electronics and microelectronics.”

The said Wistron factory is 2.2 million square foot and is located over 50 km east of Bangalore. After the takeover, Tata will take over all eight iPhone lines and its 10,000 workers. Do note that Wistron will still continue to be a service partner for iPhones in India.

Now, if the Tata-Wistron pact becomes a success, the Tata Group will be the first Indian company to build iPhones.