India will welcome Apple if it comes, says Prasad

Bengaluru: India would welcome Apple to make its iconic iPhones in the country where a lot of big firms were already making mobile phones, said Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday.

"A lot of big mobile phone manufacturing companies have come, and if Apple comes fine, they are welcome," he told reporters at the margins of an IT event here.

Noting that he would soon be meeting top officials of the US-based firm to discuss its plans to make its mobile phones in India, Prasad said as India was a huge market, making in India for the domestic and export markets was important.

"They (Apple) are very keen. Its executives are going to meet me in a couple of days though I need not share with you what they are going to discuss with me," quipped Prasad after an interactive meet with captains of the IT industry, organised by the state-run Software Technology Parks of India hereb.

Noting that 72 global telecom firms have started production in the country over the last two years, the Minister said 42 of them were making handsets while others (30) were manufacturing components like batteries and other parts.

"Though we (India) missed the industrial revolution and the entrepreneur revolution, we don`t want to miss the digital revolution. We want to become leader in that, which is our fundamental philosophy," he said.

Asserting that India was at the cusp of a digital revolution, he said the country`s digital economy would be a trillion dollar market, for its stakeholders, including IT/ITeS, e-commerce, digital payments and communications.