Apple opens second India store today; committed to growth in the country, CEO Tim Cook says
Apple opens its second company-owned retail store in India today, in New Delhi. CEO Tim Cook who’s visiting India after seven years, shared a picture on Twitter from a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday and said the company is committed to the country’s tech vision. Also in this brief, JLR is to invest $15.7 billion more in its EV plan over the next five years. Wipro follows LTIMindtree in asking freshers to take additional assessments. And Cognizant is rolling out its third pay hike to eligible staff in 18 months, Times of India reports. Notes: Apple opens its second company-owned retail store in India today, in New Delhi. CEO Tim Cook who’s visiting India after seven years said the company is committed to growth in the country. Cook shared a picture on Twitter yesterday evening from a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and wrote “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.” On April 18, Cook opened the company’s long-anticipated first Indian retail store in Mumbai, called Apple BKC, in the Jio World Drive mall, located in the tony Bandra Kurla Complex. He was greeted by hundreds of fans seeking autographs and a handshake. Apple helped create 100,000 jobs in India over the last two years including via its manufacturing contractors, Times of India reports, citing industry sources. As Apple’s operations in India expand significantly, with its contract manufacturers such as Foxconn International expanding their factories in India, the company expects to help create another 100,000 jobs in India in a shorter period, according to Times of India. Cook is also said to have requested Modi to ensure that the government’s policies remain stable towards businesses in India. India’s multi-billion-dollar production-linked incentive scheme has attracted several global electronics OEMs and their contract manufacturers to the country. India’s smartphone exports more than doubled, reaching over $11 billion in the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2023, according to trade data examined by the India Cellular and Electronics Association, an industry lobby, and government officials, TechCrunch reported on April 13. And Apple, for the first time in India, led these exports, making up nearly half the value, at an estimated $5 billion to $5.5 billion, according to the report, which cites industry analysts. Jaguar Land Rover, the British SUV maker, has announced plans to invest 15 billion pounds (or about $15.7 billion) over the next five years in developing electric vehicles and autonomous driving technologies, to ditch fossil-fuel-guzzling vehicles and catch up with rivals, Bloomberg reports. JLR, part of India’s Tata Motors, announced a press release yesterday. In some IT services news, Wipro is following LTIMindtree’s lead in asking fresh recruits to take additional assessment tests in which they need to score at least 60 percent marks to keep their jobs, Times of India reports, citing Nascent IT Employees Senate, a non-profit seeking to organise India’s millions of IT workers. These recruits were given offer letters last year, and onboarded in March this year, according to the report.