Is India Being Too Tough on Silicon Valley Giants?

It’s a sad thing to say. Even the high profile visit of Apple CEO Tim Cook couldn’t help working in favor of Apple Store in India. Not so long ago, Indian government rejected Tim Cook’s proposal of selling used iPhones in India. Rejection is nothing new to Apple these days as it has been through a handful of them this year. And why just Apple, Silicon Valley’s expensive baby, Facebook, too suffered a setback as India banned Free Basics, as the country was more interested in favoring Net Neutrality.

Let’s just prefer to think that India is the next China in the process. The country has been stressing over its Make in India venture. It has reportedly made it difficult for foreign economies to strengthen their foothold in the country like they used to previously.

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Apple has been desperately making efforts to thrive in India in order to boost the declining iPhone sales, but things don’t seem to be working in the favor of Apple CEO Tim Cook, at present.

India is Tough on Silicon Valley Giants

Yet again the Cupertino giant receives a massive blow to as the Indian government rejects Cook’s Apple Store plans in India. A greater segment of Apple products are manufactured in China, so Apple Store in India is a big ‘NO’. This is because as per the new country laws, keeping in focus the Make in India campaign, 30% of goods sold by a multinational retailer should be manufactured in India.

Merely a few days ago, Apple CEO met with the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. Cook discussed his expansion plans with Mr. Modi, out of which one strategy was to store Apple Store in India by 2017. The Cupertino-giant, at present, sells Apple products through the retail franchises in India, which exclusively deals with Apple devices.

India has emerged out as a massive battlefield for Apple. Even when Apple’s second largest source of the revenue generator, i.e. China, failed to register a good sales report in the first quarter of 2016, India on the other hand, performed extremely well. Sales of iPhone in India saw a boost by 56 percent compared to last year. The market of Apple products is growing in India, which is a developing nation still. India’s massive population is responsible for the positive growth so far. So this makes the availability of a retail store in India very important.

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Of course, it’s possible for Apple to figure out another way to fill in the requirement, but setting up its flagship store in India can do wonders, especially the ones, which it has been craving for since a while so desperately.

So, arriving back to our original point of debate, is India too harsh on Silicon Valley giants? First, it was Facebook, and now it’s Apple. These are the two tech superpowers with whom no country would dare messing up with, unless the country’s name is China. But the major cause of concern arises when we think about the future of these giants in the booming economy and how the former will cope up with consistent rejections.

What are your views?

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