
Apple to start making iPhones in India, says state government - t23
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38853640
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camillomiller
Local IT minister said it's gonna be phones for the domestic market only.
probably to drive indian iphone prices down

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kmichaels
It's interesting though, I think India is becoming more economically
competitive as prices rise in China.

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geodel
Manufacturing jobs Indian salaries are lower. But the effect of automation is
showing even there as there is hardly any job growth in that area. The biggest
problem India is facing is that population becoming old before it becomes a
medium income country.

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dukeluke
There are many who say protectionism hurts a country, yet here we see India's
protectionist legislation leading to a lot of new, local jobs. Why wouldn't
that work in the US?

Edit: to those downvoting me, I'd like to remind you that the downvote button
is not the disagree button. I am trying to add to the discussion with this
question, not argue for no reason.

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dmode
India was (and still is to a large extent) a very protectionist country. When
I grew up, you can only buy between 2 or 3 car models, all built by Indian
companies and some with a government partnership. It held back the country
severely and expanded poverty. Due to dire financial outlook of the country,
India was forced to liberalize it's economy in the 90s. And since then there
has been no looking back.

But many years of protectionism meant that India continues to lag behind China
in most key indicators. India lost out on the manufacturing boom and an
opportunity to lift millions out of poverty. India provides a perfect example
of pitfalls of a protectionist economy.

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saycheese
Why was having only a few options for cars an economic barrier to growth?

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kamaal
Most comments don't give you a right perspective. Its really not
protectionism, or socialism.

India started out very badly after Independence. It had nothing to show for,
infact very little in terms of a trained workforce, quality human resources,
industries, scientific enterprise, economy or anything for that matter. By the
time British left, they had looted India to the very last paisa.

The first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had a great vision and equally good
execution abilities. They faced a near impossible task of uniting a already
politically, ethnically and linguistically divided nation. They federalized
India on the lines of language, thereby uniting it under one union. They set
institutions going for sound administration and bureaucracy.

Beyond all these political problems there is problem of nation building. Or
Growth as you would call it. To build quality infrastructure you need taxes,
to collect taxes you need industries, to build industries you need trained
human resources, to get trained human resources you need to build good
universities and academic institutions. You realize you are stuck is a
chicken-egg problem.

The only solution most post-colonial states employed was to incrementally move
upwards by building self reliance and capability. 5 year planning commissions
were common.

The corner stone of Nehruvian economics was:

1\. Build quality educational institutions.

2\. Quality educational institutions build quality human resources.

3\. Establish state owned(or partially at-least) industries to develop
indigenous, manufacturing, research and production capabilities, in all walks
and branches of economy.

4\. Use 2 and 3 to eventually build private enterprise.

5\. Collect taxes using 4.

6\. Build infrastructure and other things in 1. and 2. using taxes collected
so far at 5.

We were in the process of 'getting there'. Irrigation networks were laid,
nuclear weapons were built, space programs were in motion. In fact India had
indigenous presence in everything imaginable. However the politics of India
was never stable.

Beyond all this 'capitalism' suddenly got fashionable. Why work and build
indigenously when you could just pay and import?

In fact most of India's current predicaments arise out of abandonment of
Nehru's path. We can't seem to build anything good. No good roads, no planned
cities, no safe drinking water, frequent power cuts... the list just goes
endless.

Sure you now have cheap mobile phones and internet. But a city like Bangalore
was a heaven to live in during the times of Nehruvian economics. Today you
reach home from office with a lot of dust in the mouth.

Ironically the same people who admire freeways, dams and social security in
the US, which are the outcomes socialist policies. Hate the same in India.

In fact most people in India have barely a clue what socialism or capitalism
actually mean. Except that they know if they hate something that automatically
gets classified as socialist or communist.

EDIT: Looks like anything positive about Nehru is a magnet for downvotes.

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vthallam
> We can't seem to build anything good. No good roads, no planned cities, no
> safe drinking water, frequent power cuts... the list just goes endless

And who to blame for this? Human greed which led to corruption and crony
capitalism? There are always funds for everything in India like
roads/bridges/housing for poor, but the roads built don't last for a year and
the poor doesn't enjoy the housing, rather it's the middle men(dalal).

>But a city like Bangalore was a heaven to live in during the times of
Nehruvian economics. Today you reach home from office with a lot of dust in
the mouth.

Come on, I mean what was the population in Bangalore in Nehruvian times and
now? The growth comes with lots of challenges, it's just that there was no
plan by any politician to scale the city needs as per the growth. 7 years back
when i visited Bangalore, it was the pleasant city with lots of trees, and now
half of them are gone to accommodate metro and other things.

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kamaal
>>And who to blame for this? Human greed which led to corruption and crony
capitalism? There are always funds for everything in India like
roads/bridges/housing for poor, but the roads built don't last for a year and
the poor doesn't enjoy the housing, rather it's the middle men(dalal).

That's at the first level. If you think of it a little deeply, its actually
scarcity. Either reduce the population or increase abundance.

>>Come on, I mean what was the population in Bangalore in Nehruvian times and
now? The growth comes with lots of challenges, it's just that there was no
plan by any politician to scale the city needs as per the growth. 7 years back
when i visited Bangalore, it was the pleasant city with lots of trees, and now
half of them are gone to accommodate metro and other things.

My friend its not really outsiders. But something called as regulation and
adherence to planning. All these regulations that we hate here in India we
love it in the west when they say they want parks and broad roads while
planning layouts.

Its not like Bangalore saw growth only after IT. We were there long before.
And it was attractive destination for jobs decades before IT happened.
Bangalore was home to every single industry back then. BAL's, HAL's, ITIs of
the world.

But its just that after 90's people wanted everything in a instance order be
damned.

Like I said why think, plan and make. When you can just copy, rush through and
import.

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vthallam
> ts not like Bangalore saw growth only after IT. We were there long before.
> And it was attractive destination for jobs decades before IT happened.
> Bangalore was home to every single industry back then. BAL's, HAL's, ITIs of
> the world.

Yeah, Bangalore was a big city and sure there were industries, but the thing
is the rate of growth from 90's to today is way more than the city
anticipated.

>Like I said why think, plan and make. When you can just copy, rush through
and import.

I agree with you that there's no plan and that's the major reason of the
dismal structure of the cities in general in India, but this has nothing to do
with Nehru policies, just human greed and stupidity.

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calvinbhai
Most reports seem to be focussing on selling price for iPhones in India. More
than price, manufacturing iPhones in India lets Apple have Apple Stores, and
sell to customer directly.

Currently, Indian customer has no access to Apple Store level of shopping
experience. Yet to come across Apple Reseller Stores who are at least 10% as
good as the Apple Stores.

Benefits to Apple:

1) Keeps full profits. No margin wasted for reseller

2) Offers world class Apple Store experience / customer service

3) Ability to offer refurbished products (currently they cannot)

4) Educating customers in the regional language about iPhones (will make a
huge difference)

5) No Price Anchoring effect (resellers will cross sell android phones at
1/4th the price with higher margins / incentives)

