NEW DELHI — More than 100,000 women are now employed in iPhone manufacturing facilities in India, highlighting the growing role of women in the country’s expanding electronics manufacturing sector, Union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said Monday.
The minister said women have emerged as some of the biggest beneficiaries of the government’s “Make in India” initiative, which has helped create large-scale employment opportunities in electronics manufacturing.
“PM @narendramodi Ji’s ‘Make in India’ is empowering women. Electronics manufacturing is creating new employment avenues for women,” Vaishnaw said in a post on social media platform X.
According to the minister, women make up more than half of the workforce at several electronics manufacturing plants across the country. Female workers are also contributing to operations at highly complex semiconductor manufacturing facilities, he added.
Vaishnaw had earlier said in February that women have been among the largest beneficiaries of the “Make in India” program, which has generated hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs while expanding large-scale skill development opportunities.
The broader Apple manufacturing ecosystem in India has created roughly 250,000 direct jobs, with nearly 70 percent of those positions held by women, according to the minister.
Apple has significantly expanded its production footprint in India as part of its strategy to diversify manufacturing beyond China.
The company increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent in 2025, assembling nearly 55 million devices compared with 36 million units the previous year, according to industry reports.
India now produces roughly a quarter of Apple’s flagship iPhones, part of the company’s broader effort to reduce reliance on Chinese manufacturing and avoid potential tariff risks.
Globally, Apple manufactures around 220 million to 230 million iPhones annually, with India’s share steadily increasing. Much of the growth has been supported by the government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, which provides subsidies to manufacturers.
The program has helped offset structural challenges such as weaker supply chains and logistics limitations compared with China.
Older models such as the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 continue to be produced locally for both domestic sales and export markets.
In 2025, iPhones became India’s most valuable export item, with shipments worth about $23 billion, largely destined for the United States, according to industry data.
Smartphones also emerged as India’s top export category for the first time, with total exports reaching $30.13 billion during the January–December period, of which Apple accounted for about 76 percent. (Source: IANS)
