On November first, India's Tata Group announced that it was going to add 45,000 employees to its plant in Hosur, Tamil Nadu plant in India that makes iPhone cases. On November 30^th, Tata Electronics was in the news again, this time to announce that it was in negotiations to acquire Wistron's iPhone plant. Today, the Tata Group is once again in the news with their plan to open 100 exclusive Apple Stores in India.

According to The Times of India, Apple is reportedly tying up with Tata-owned Infinity Retail which aims to open 100 stores in malls as well as high street neighborhood locations.

The Tata-Apple partnership comes as Apple is set to open its first-ever company-owned flagship store in Mumbai in the first Quarter of 2023 which had been delayed due to COVID-19. Tata will open two kinds of stores. There will be mini stores that will be roughly 600 sq. ft. each, selling iPhones, iPad and Apple Watches. A second style store which are larger wil sell Apple's full line of products.

According to Cybermedia Research, Apple sold close to 1.2 million iPhones in India in Q2 2022, which represented 94% growth year-over-year.

It appears that 2023 will be the year that Apple makes its biggest push into the India market thus far while at the same time, Foxconn is expanding it's iPhone plant in India. The company announced the $500 million plant expansion on December ninth.

It's also being reported this morning that the Tata Group, India's largest conglomerate with US$128 billion in 2022 revenue, will make a foray into the semiconductor business. Tata Group established Tata Electronics in 2020 and plans to set up semiconductor assembly testing business under this electronic component manufacturer