Apple is to start making iPhones in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, the state's government has said.
Ministers
said Apple would start an initial manufacturing operation in the state,
whose capital is the tech hub Bangalore, in April.
The tech giant has a 2% share of India's mobile phone market, well behind South Korean rival Samsung.
Apple has yet to officially confirm the plan, saying only that it is keen to "invest significantly" in India.
But
Priyank Kharge, minister of information technology and biotechnology
in Karnataka, told the AFP news agency: "We have an understanding with
Apple and we expect them to start manufacturing in Karnataka by the end
of April."
Reports said the plant is being set up by Taiwanese manufacturing company Wistron Corp.
Despite
the low percentage of sales, Apple has almost half of the market for
premium phones, which start at around $450 an item, and its sales are
growing fast.
Apple has held a series of meetings with government
representatives at both state and national level and is understood to
be pressing for concessions before going ahead with such a move.
Apple's biggest manufacturing partner is Taiwanese giant Foxconn, which runs the biggest iPhone factory in the world in China.
Apple
is currently unable to set up its own branded stores in India, which
has a raft of rules to curb the activities of foreign companies.
Rising sales
For
it to be able to sell direct to customers in India, Apple would have to
source 30% of the components of its products locally.
Earlier this week, Apple reported its first rise in sales in nine months after strong Christmas sales of the iPhone 7.
The
firm had suffered three quarters in a row of falling revenues as
mounting competition, particularly from Chinese rivals, hit sales of the
iPhone.
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