Tamil Nadu Kicks off 2021 by Signing Two MoU in Electronics
Tamil Nadu has recently announced two major MoUs with Taiwan-based Pegatron and Tata Electronics, which has to be signed around Pongal festival. They have planned to establish units to manufacture Apple products.
In this agreement, Tata Electronics is investing Rs 5,000 crore and will employ 18,000 people in the first phase. The company too has lined up higher investments and employment opportunities in subsequent phases.
It has already broken ground and started construction work at GMR SEZ near Hosur in Krishnagiri district. The MoU will formalize the investment plans and tune it in line with the state government’s investment incentives. When contacted by TOI, state government officials declined to comment.
“Nothing has been finalized yet and companies are generally in talks with more than one state,” an official said. In the case of Pegatron, the Taiwan company’s board had recently cleared the investment plan for a new plant in India to make iPhones. It was in talks with both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Foxconn, Pegatron and Wistron are the three leading makers of phones for Apple. While Foxconn is already located near Chennai in Tamil Nadu, Wistron opted for Karnataka. Wistron’s Karnataka operations recently witnessed a labour strife that resulted in arson and large-scale damage to property, even though the company said the manufacturing equipment remained safe.
