Ravi Shankar Prasad

New Delhi, (IANS) : With iPhone maker Apple’s manufacturing process already underway at its Bengaluru facility, Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday said it is the country’s market that is pulling world’s giant companies.

“India is a huge market for smartphones. Apple has already started production in Bangalore on a modest level and they are in touch with the IT Secretary for further expansion and the talk is going on,” Prasad said during an interaction with reporters at a press meet in the ministry.

“Today, almost all the big companies of the world are coming to India because of the sheer pull of India’s market,” he added.

Recently on May 17, Apple announced commencement of initial production of its popular iPhone SE model at its Bengaluru facility.

To begin with, the production will be a trial run with small quantities of iPhone SE units being assembled at the facility, the company earlier told IANS in a e-mail. Apple began assembling iPhone SE models with Wistron Corporation, its Taiwanese manufacturing partner.

In mobile phone manufacturing, 72 new mobile manufacturing units started only in the last 30 months, the ministry said in a statement.

“It has created one lakh direct and three lakh indirect jobs in India. All major brands like Apple, Samsung in the ICT (information and communication technology) sector are manufacturing or are ready to manufacture in India,” the statement added.