Tata Group to hire 45,000 women workers at Hosur iPhone parts plant: Report

Tata's Hosur plant is spread over 500 acres and hiring of women workforce will help improve India’s gender imbalance in the workforce.

In order to ramp up production and gain more business from Apple Inc, Tata Group is planning to add around 45,000 women workforce in its Hosur plan located in Tamil Nadu. The company will complete the hiring within the next two years, taking its number of employees to around 55,000 as it presently has 10,000 staff, mostly women. The factory produces iPhone cases which hold the device together.

According to a Bloomberg report quoted by several media houses, Tata Group is trying to benefit from Apple's move to diversify its supply chain beyond China. It may be recalled that Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo revealed last month that in response to the current de-globalization trend, Apple Inc was considering shifting a major portion of iPhone production to India, along with moving some percentage of MacBook production and assembly to Thailand. Kuo had also claimed that Apple plans to partner with Tata Group to cooperate with Pegatron or Wistron to co-develop the global iPhone assembly business in India.

Around 80 per cent of iPhones are made in India to meet domestic demand. This is, however, a fraction of the global iPhone production. According to the report, India is pushing for a greater percentage of iPhone production in the country as China struggles with Covid-related lockdowns and political tensions with the US.

Tata's Hosur plant is spread over 500 acres and hiring of women workforce will help improve India’s gender imbalance in the workforce. According to the report, Apple’s main manufacturing partner Foxconn is grappling with concerns that an increase in Covid cases at its main Chinese plant could hurt production, thus affecting the upcoming sales seasons.

It may be noted that Foxconn, Taiwanese contract manufacturers Wistron Corp. and Pegatron Corp. have already ramped up iPhone output in India.