Inside Foxconn’s struggle to make iPhones in India
Photos by Saumya Khandelwal for Rest of World
Chinese engineers are flying to India to train the next generation of iPhone builders — and that’s caused interesting culture clashes.
In 2023, amid the US-China geopolitical tussle, Apple was looking to secure its supply chain by shifting parts of its iPhone production to India. I chronicled the shift in manufacturing from China to India through a series of articles, culminating in a cross-country, 5000 word reporting project. As a part of it, our team at Rest of World interviewed two dozen assembly line workers, technicians, engineers, and managers to piece together the successes, struggles, and cultural clashes that played out on one of the world’s most consequential factory floors.
PBS Newshour did a segment on our reporting, in which I appeared to discuss the challenges Apple faces in scaling production in India. Influential entrepreneurs, investors, and China watchers discussed the article on social media, sharing their views on India’s role in manufacturing. The story won the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing’s SABEW 2023 Best in Business Awards.
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