Hasn't Apple rolled out a proposal yet for setting up manufacturing facility in India?

On his first visit to India, Apple CEO Tim Cook met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and spoke about possibilities of manufacturing within the country. However, the company has not submitted any proposal with the IT Ministry to set up its plant in India, as yet.

Cook visited Hyderabad on 20 May, to launch the technology centre relating to their maps division, in the presence of Chief Minister of Telangana K Chandrashekar Rao, informed the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology PP Chaudhary in the Lok Sabha.

"He also called on the Prime Minister on 21 May. He shared Apple Inc's future plans for India and spoke of possibilities of manufacturing and retailing in India. There is no proposal with this ministry from Apple Inc to set up a manufacturing unit in the country," Chaudhary said.

After meeting senior officials from manufacturing giant Foxconn, partner of Apple, the then telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in May had said the Cupertino-based technology major was coming to manufacture iPhones in India.

Apple has been lobbying hard for exemption from the mandatory 30% local sourcing on the ground that its products have such high-end technology that these cannot be sourced locally here.

The government in June relaxed FDI norms by giving a three-year exemption from local sourcing to foreign players in single-brand retail and a further five-year relaxation for 'state-of-the-art' and 'cutting-edge' technology.

-With agency inputs