iPhone manufacturer Wistron to expand Karnataka investment to Rs 3,000 crore

Apple's Taiwanese contract manufacturer in India, Wistron, the company which makes iPhones in the country has just stated that it may raise its investment in Karnataka to Rs 3,000 crore.Wiston is currently setting up a manufacturing facility at Narasapura industrial area of Kolar district in Karnataka with an earlier proposed investment of Rs 700 crore. According to a report by Economic Times, the manufacturing unit is expected to produce smartphones, IoT products and biotech devices.[caption id="attachment_4609041" align="alignnone" width="1024"]

Representational image. Reuters.[/caption]As per the report, a team from Wistron Infocomm Manufacturing India recently met Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy and provided him a brief description of the progress made so far. The chief minister extended full support of the government and asked Winston executives to step up investments in other areas of mobile technology as well.Country head of Wiston India, Gururaj A, speaking to the chief minister mentioned that the setup will be the largest project of its kind in the country, creating 10,500 jobs as the company expands the unit in phases.The Taiwanese company has been so far assembling affordable iPhone models like the iPhone SE, iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6S out of a rented facility, located in an industrial suburb near Bengaluru. The move to the new facility is expected to see the company assemble higher-end iPhone variants using locally made components. This the government expects to bring down prices of iPhones by 20 percent.Gaurav Gupta, principal secretary, Industries and Information Technology departments, speaking to the publication said, "We have engaged with them [Wistron] on a regular basis to ensure the project comes up fast."