Apple to invest Rs 1,000 crore to set up online and retail stores, says report

Apple Inc is planning to invest about Rs 1,000 crore in setting up its online selling platform and three of its trademark retail stores across major cities in the country in the next two to three years, the iPhone maker told government officials, as reported by The Economic Times.

"There have been meetings with company executives. The first store is likely to come up in Mumbai followed by Delhi and a third location is yet undecided," a senior government official told ET.

The development comes at a time when the government on Wednesday allowed foreign single-brand companies to sell products directly via online stores. The centre has allowed exports and contract manufacturing to be counted in the mandatory 30 percent local sourcing norm over a period of five years.

An Apple spokesperson told CNBC-TV18, "We appreciate the support and hard work by Prime Minister Modi and his team to make this possible and we look forward to one day welcoming customers to India’s first Apple retail store.  It will take us some time to get our plans underway and we’ll have more to announce at a future date.”  

Presently, Apple has online sales partnership with Amazon, Flipkart and Paytm Mall where the company authorised third-party sales of its products.