PM Modi Meets Apple CEO Tim Cook Amid Discussions Of Business Expansion And Enhancing Employment

Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, April 20, as the iPhone maker seeks to increase its investment in the world’s second-largest smartphone market.

The Business Plan

Apple sought physical retail outlets in India for a long time before launching its online store there in 2020. The Covid-19 epidemic caused its initial intentions for 2021 to fall through. Cook had last traveled to India in 2016, when the business giant had only started to expand its business there.

As per the Outlook reports, the opening of the new stores in Mumbai and Delhi coincides with Apple’s efforts to expand its retail presence in India, the country with the second-largest smartphone market in the world. Apple, seeking to diversify its supply chains away from China, saw an opportunity in India, where plants produce 5% of total iPhones.

In the price-sensitive Indian market, where competitor Google’s Android platform powers more than 95 percent of smartphones, the iPhone remains an aspirational device.

Apple is trying to win over the Indian market by promising to increase the number of jobs progressively it creates via its dealers to roughly two lacks. According to a government source, Cook did this to increase the number of Indian component suppliers.

Cook-Modi Meeting

Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday and reaffirmed the company’s commitment to developing and investing in the nation. Cook’s meeting with Modi comes as the global tech giant opens its first two company-run retail shops in India, in BKC, Mumbai, and Saket, Delhi.

Cook had also met Modi during his earlier visit in 2016.

The government has provided Apple the opportunity to define the skill set, and it will assist them in doing so, as it is doing at Gatishakti Vishwavidyalaya in conjunction with Boeing and Siemens.

On Wednesday, Cook also had meetings with Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, and Rajeev Chandrashekar, the Minister of State.

Only 4% of India’s over 700 million smartphone users presently use Apple, which cheaper local brands and Chinese and South Korean manufacturers are outperforming.