Apple has expanded its manufacturing operations in India, and its supply chain now provides employment to around 3.5 lakh people, including 1.2 lakh direct jobs, according to a report in The Economic Times.

The company is currently working with 45 suppliers in India, which include over 20 Indian Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) as well as large firms such as Foxconn, Tata Electronics, Aequs, Jabil, Microplastics, and ATL. Officials noted that these job figures do not cover the workforce at Apple’s five iPhone factories in the country.

This growth has been supported by the Union government’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, introduced in 2020 to encourage electronics manufacturing and exports.

Between the financial years 2021–22 and 2024–25, Apple produced iPhones worth 45 billion USD in India, of which 34 billion USD (76 per cent) were exported. As a result, smartphones have become the top item in India’s export basket, rising from the 167th spot in 2014–15. In fact, 2025 was the first time that Apple’s latest flagships, the iPhone 17 series and the iPhone Air, were built in India from day one.

At present, almost one in every five iPhones sold worldwide is manufactured in India. The main production hubs are in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, while component makers are spread across states, including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Haryana.