Apple CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi and said that they are committed to investing in India.
“Thank you Prime Minister @narendramodi for the warm welcome. We share your vision of the positive impact technology can make on India’s future — from education and developers to manufacturing and the environment, we’re committed to growing and investing across the country,” Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted.
After meeting Cook, PM Modi also tweeted, “An absolute delight to meet you, @tim_cook! Glad to exchange views on diverse topics and highlight the tech-powered transformations taking place in India.”
Tim’s meeting with the Prime Minister has come ahead of Apple second India’s own retail store opening in New Delhi. The new store built at Saket’s Select City Walk mall will be opened for public on Thursday.
Apple opened its first India store retail in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex on Tuesday.
Tim Cook welcomed the very first customers at the Mumbai store. Several Bollywood celebrities were also present at the inauguration.
Tim Cook also met Union Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw in Delhi and discussed Apple’s engagement in India across manufacturing, electronics exports and other issues.
“Met with @tim_cook, CEO, Apple. Discussed deepening Apple’s engagement in India across manufacturing, electronics exports, app economy, skilling, sustainability and job creation especially for women. Jointly charting a long-term and strong relationship,” Ashwini Vaishnaw tweeted.
The iPhone is still an aspirational product in the price-sensitive Indian market, where more than 95 per cent of smartphones run on rival Google’s Android platform. Cook had met Modi on the previous visit in 2016 as well.
Apple is wooing the Indian market with a promise to double the employment base in the country through its vendors to around 2 lakh gradually. For this, Cook sought government support to widen its components supplier base in India, a government source said.
The source said that Cook has long-term policy stability to foster investments in the country.
“He has also asked support to skill Indian manpower to suit the company’s requirement,” the source said.
The government has offered Apple to define the skill set and it will support them in facilitating it as it is doing for creating skills at Gatishakti Vishwavidyalaya in collaboration with Boeing and Siemens.
Apple commands a small base of just 4 per cent of India’s nearly 700 million smartphone users, which is currently dominated by cheaper local brands, as well as Chinese and South Korean manufacturers.
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