Govt may give Apple 3 years respite to setup mandatory local sourcing in India: Report

Seems that Apple CEO Tim Cook’s visit to India has bore fruit after all. Apple may be getting away with the mandatory sourcing norms requirement says the Times of India. The government is reportedly planning a (special) arrangement to help Apple out. This it will do by bending the rules a bit, giving the company between 2-3 years to work out a plan, to get its local sourcing route in place. According to sources, the discussions for the same have already taken off and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) seems to be fine with the new arrangement. Before you pick up your pitch forks, there is indeed a reason for the same. In its earlier presentation to the body, Apple did mention that it will not to be able to get anything sourced locally, except for may be a charger for its devices. Apple has already begun buying some chargers and exporting them. And the last time we heard from DIPP, it was not too keen about Apple coming to India stating that there was “nothing to show that Apple’s technology is cutting edge”. Now that Tim Cook has planned to set up an accelerator program among other things , and seems to be pretty serious about India, things may be in Apple’s favour. Last we heard from Apple less than a month ago, the Cupertino tech giant was hell bent on getting an exemption from domestic sourcing regulations. The company made it clear that it had no plans to manufacture devices in the country, or source components from local vendors,  as told to the Economic Times.