Apple today announced a new Education Hub in Bengaluru as part of an expanded effort to provide technical training and skills development for employees across its supply chain in India.


Apple said the new Apple Education Hub in Bengaluru will serve as a centralized training and coordination facility for supplier employees in India, marking the company's first education hub of its kind in the country. The hub will begin offering courses in March and operates in collaboration with Manipal Academy of Higher Education, which will provide faculty and curriculum support focused initially on digital literacy and Swift programming.

In parallel with the Bengaluru hub, Apple is broadening its suite of development courses at more than 25 supplier facilities across the country. The updated curriculum will be introduced starting with Tata Electronics and is designed to cover digital literacy, Swift coding, robotics, automation technology, and smart manufacturing practices. Apple said these offerings are funded through its global $50 million Supplier Employee Development Fund, which supports education and skills training initiatives across the company's supply chain.

The same spirit of innovation that drives our products also guides our commitment to supporting people across our global supply chain. We are thrilled to expand our technical training courses in India, giving thousands of employees the opportunity to learn valuable new skills and explore new paths for career growth.

The company said the new courses build on an existing portfolio of more than 75 programs currently available to supplier employees in India. The offerings span technical skills, professional development, health education, and rights awareness training, which Apple says are designed to ensure workers are informed about workplace standards and protections. Apple works with international organizations and local partners to deliver these programs.

Apple's expanded training effort also includes plans to scale its robotics education program, which launched in India in December 2024. The initiative focuses on training factory educators in dedicated robotics labs, after which those educators adapt the material and conduct hands-on sessions within their own facilities. Apple said it plans to extend the robotics program to additional supplier sites in India later this year.

Apple also announced plans to grow its Vocational Education for Persons with Disabilities program in India. The program recently launched with Salcomp and seeks to provide employment and professional development opportunities for people with disabilities within Apple's supply chain, as well as improve safety, accessibility, and inclusivity practices at manufacturing facilities. To date, the program has supported more than 18,000 supplier employees around the world and builds on Apple's partnership with Enable India.
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Apple is in talks with suppliers to manage iPhone chip assembly and packaging in India for the first time, reports The Economic Times.


"Exploratory conversations" are said to have taken place with semiconductor company CG Semi, which is constructing one of India's first outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) facilities in Sanand, Gujarat.

From the report, citing people with knowledge of the matter:

"The companies are in the very initial stages of discussion," one of them said. "It is not clear what chips will be packaged out of the Sanand facility at this stage, but it will likely be display chips."

The person added that this may be the "beginning of an uphill climb" for CG Semi since if talks progress, it will have to pass Apple's stringent quality standards to clinch the deal. "Apple is already in talks with several companies for a number of other supply chain functions, and very few will end up on their supplier list," the person said.

As the report mentions, Apple sources its iPhone display panels from the world's three leading OLED manufacturers: Samsung Display, LG Display, and BOE. The display driver ICs used with these panels are supplied by companies such as Samsung, Novatek, Himax, and LX Semicon, which in turn rely mainly on chip fabrication and packaging facilities in South Korea, Taiwan, and China.

If the discussions between Apple and CG Semi bear fruit, the move would be another example of Apple pivoting to India as a major supply chain and manufacturing hub. Apple reportedly assembled $22 billion worth of iPhones in India during the 12 months ending in March 2025, a nearly 60% increase over the previous year. Foxconn, Tata Electronics, and Pegatron now operate facilities in India focused on ‌iPhone‌ manufacturing. Apple is apparently aiming to manufacture the majority of iPhones sold in the United States in India by the end of 2026.
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India is reviewing a proposal that would require Apple to keep GPS location services permanently active on every iPhone sold in the country, according to Reuters.


Under the proposal, smartphone makers including Apple would be required to activate satellite-assisted GPS on their devices at all times with no option for users to disable the feature. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) argues that location data from cell tower triangulation is not sufficiently precise for investigative use and that authorities should have access to meter-level coordinates provided by GPS.

GPS is typically activated only when specific apps request location access or when an emergency call is placed. The COAI has also asked the government to require smartphone makers to disable pop-up notifications that inform users when a carrier is attempting to access location information.

Apple has formally opposed the proposal. In a letter sent in July by the India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA), which represents Apple and Google, the companies warned the government that forcing GPS to remain active at all times would constitute a regulatory overreach.

The news comes shortly after India reversed a separate directive that would have required all smartphone makers, including Apple, to preinstall a government app and prevent users from disabling its functions. The order was rescinded after widespread criticism.
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Apple is fighting an antitrust penalty law in India that could require it to pay massive fines in its ongoing antitrust dispute with Tinder owner Match, reports Reuters.


Last year, India passed a law that allows the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to use global turnover when calculating penalties imposed on companies for abusing market dominance. Apple can be fined up to 10 percent, which would result in a penalty of around $38 billion. Apple said that using global turnover would result in a fine that's "manifestly arbitrary, unconstitutional, grossly disproportionate, and unjust."

Apple is asking India's Delhi High Court to declare the law illegal, suggesting that penalties should be based on the Indian revenue of the specific unit that violates antitrust law.

Apple has been fighting an antitrust lawsuit in India since 2022 against dating app Match and several Indian startups. The CCI released a pair of reports last year suggesting that Apple had engaged in "abusive conduct and practices" because it required developers to use its in-app purchase system. The CCI was forced to recall its investigative reports because they contained confidential information about Apple's business practices, resulting in a delay of several months. No final decision has been made, and a penalty has yet to be levied against Apple. Apple maintains that it has not done anything wrong, and argues that it has a very small share of the smartphone market in India because Android devices are much more popular.

Apple said in today's filing that the CCI used the new penalty law on November 10 in an unrelated case, fining a company for a violation that happened 10 years ago. Apple said it had "no choice but to bring this constitutional challenge now" to avoid having retrospective penalties applied against it, too.

Match has argued that a high fine based on global turnover would discourage companies from repeating antitrust violations. Apple's plea will be heard on December 3.
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Apple is lobbying India to amend a decades-old tax law that could expose the company to billions of dollars in taxes on equipment it owns inside local iPhone factories, Reuters reports.


Apple is reportedly urging the Indian government to modify provisions in the Income Tax Act of 1961 to ensure it is not taxed simply for owning high-value manufacturing machinery supplied to its contract manufacturers, including Foxconn and Tata Electronics. The issue is a potential obstacle to Apple's expansion in the country.

Indian law currently treats such ownership as creating a "business connection", effectively making the company's global ‌iPhone‌ profits taxable in India. In China, Apple operates under a different model. The company buys the specialized machinery required to assemble iPhones and provides it to its manufacturing partners without becoming liable for local corporate tax. In India, the same practice could trigger significant tax exposure under existing law.

Legal experts say India's stance may stem from precedents such as the 2017 Supreme Court ruling against Formula One, which held that the UK-based company was liable for local taxes during its Grand Prix event because it exercised control over the circuit despite not owning it. A similar interpretation could apply if Apple were to maintain ownership of machinery used in Indian factories.

Discussions with the Indian government on taxation rules impacting Apple are said to be ongoing. The effort comes amid rapid expansion of its Indian operations. Since 2022, the country's share of global ‌iPhone‌ shipments is believed to have increased fourfold to around 25%. While China still produces around 75% of all iPhones, India is increasingly viewed as a critical secondary hub as Apple diversifies its supply chain. Foxconn and Tata have together invested more than $5 billion to open five large manufacturing facilities for Apple in the country.
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Apple and Samsung have reportedly issued cease-and-desist notices to Xiaomi in India for an ad campaign that directly compares the rivals' devices to Xiaomi's products. The two companies have threatened the Chinese vendor with legal action, calling the ads "disparaging."


Ads have appeared in local print media and on social media that take pot shots at the competitors' premium offerings. One full-page print ad published in April wished readers a "Happy April Fools' Day" if they believed the iPhone 16 Pro Max's cameras could match those on Xiaomi's recently launched 15 Ultra.

In March, another print ad described the triple lens array on the iPhone 16 Pro Max as "cute" and questioned whether it was "really the best," while touting the Ultra's higher camera specifications and more affordable price. Xiaomi has launched similar ad campaigns against Samsung.

Apple and Samsung contend that the tone of Xiaomi's promotions went beyond fair competition, and portrayed the global market leaders in a negative light. Comparative advertising in India is not prohibited provided they are fact-based and fair, but lawyers can legitimately get involved if the tone and language is perceived as mocking.


Samsung's promotional jabs at Apple have recently taken a more understated approach. Its ads typically don't call out iPhones outright, and instead spotlight features where Samsung believes it has the edge.

The tech giants' responses to this particular ad campaign indicate just how fiercely contested India's smartphone sector has become. As the country's two leading high-end vendors, both brands obviously see their reputation and market share as vital in one of the world's fastest-growing and most lucrative markets, and intend to defend them using all the legal tools at their disposal.
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