BREAKING: Apple is shifting more iPhone production to India to avoid U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. By the end of 2025, one in four iPhones could be made in India.
What does this mean for India, China, and global manufacturing? 🧵
Today, China dominates global manufacturing with 28.8% share of output, more than 10x India's share. Its infrastructure, logistics networks, and skilled workforce are unparalleled.
However, labor costs in China have surged—factory workers earn $600+ per month, vs. $150-$300 in India...
For Apple, this shift is monumental. China has been the backbone of its production for decades, but rising tariffs and geopolitical risks make diversification essential.
Will Apple's gamble on India pay off?
Lower labor costs are an advantage, but replicating its success in China won’t be easy. India must address infrastructure gaps and scale up its supply chain efficiency to meet Apple’s high standards.
To address this, India is supporting Apple’s manufacturing shift with financial incentives like the Production Linked Incentive scheme, infrastructure upgrades, supply chain digitization and workforce training.
What could be the impact for India?
Apple’s expansion in India could create up to 600,000 jobs by FY25, including 200,000 direct roles at factories operated by suppliers like Foxconn and Pegatron.
The multiplier effect could generate millions of indirect jobs across logistics, component manufacturing, and retail.
How big is this impact?
Apple’s shift could be transformative for India. iPhone exports under the PLI scheme are projected to hit ₹1.2 lakh crore ($14B) in FY24 alone, diversifying India's export base beyond traditional textiles.
This move also strengthens India’s position as a preferred destination for foreign investment.
As Apple deepens its commitment to Indian manufacturing, other companies are following suit...
Apple isn’t the only OEM pivoting away from China. Lenovo plans to relocate all laptop production to India within three years, while HP and Dell are increasing their Indian operations.
India’s competitive costs and government incentives make it an attractive alternative for global tech giants seeking supply chain diversification.
How far can this trend go? Could India truly challenge China as the world’s factory?
India’s potential as a manufacturing powerhouse is undeniable: a $5T economy rapidly approaching, a young workforce eager for opportunities, and rising domestic consumption driving growth across sectors. Yet challenges like uneven development and regulatory hurdles remain.
If India can overcome these obstacles, it could reshape global trade dynamics and emerge as a critical player in high-tech manufacturing. Apple’s move could be the catalyst that unlocks India's full economic potential.
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🚨BREAKING: Trump implements 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs.
While markets are ripping, it comes with a dramatic escalation against China, which now faces 125% tariffs.
What could this mean? We looked at the 2018 U.S-China trade war to understand what might happen next 🧵
Trump’s decision to raise tariffs on China to 125% marks a sharp escalation in the ongoing trade war.
Beijing has already retaliated to the previous iteration of tariffs with their own measures, including an 84% tariff on U.S. goods and restrictions on key exports like rare earths.
By targeting China so aggressively while pausing tariffs for others, Trump is signaling a clear intent to isolate Beijing economically. How will they respond?
This isn't the first time China has faced a trade war with the U.S.
In 2018, Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on Chinese goods, starting at 10% and escalating to 25%.
China has already imposed an 84% tariff on U.S. goods, but it could further expand this to include additional sectors, such as financial services or luxury goods.
Drawing from its 2018 playbook, Beijing may also increase scrutiny on U.S. agricultural exports such as soybeans and corn. This would hurt U.S. farmers, who remain heavily dependent on the Chinese market and were a key pressure point during the earlier trade war.
But that isn't the only weapon that China could use.
If it holds, this is the worst three day period in the stock market since 1987.
History never repeats itself, but it does rhyme. Here's the story of what happened on Black Monday, 1987:
On October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered a historic collapse, falling 22.6% in a single trading session.
This event, later dubbed Black Monday, erased more than $500 billion in market value in the U.S. alone and sent shockwaves through global financial markets.
It wasn’t just a U.S. phenomenon—this was the first truly global market crash.
The ripple effects were staggering.
London’s FTSE 100 fell 11%, Australia’s market dropped over 40% in a month, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost nearly half its value in just a week.
By the time the dust settled, global markets had shed $1.71 trillion in value.
Investors around the world were left reeling - how could such a catastrophic event unfold so quickly?
The Dow Jones is down nearly 5% today - one of the worst days in stock market history.
History doesn't repeat itself, but if you listen closely, it rhymes.
Here's a list of the worst days in stock market history, detailing the events that caused these dramatic declines:
Wall Street Crash of 1929
Black Thursday (October 24, 1929): A record 12.9 million shares were traded, starting the slide.
Black Monday (October 28, 1929): Dow fell 12.8%.
Black Tuesday (October 29, 1929): Dow dropped another 11.7%.
Cause: Excessive speculation during the "Roaring Twenties," margin buying, and economic weaknesses like overproduction and low wages. This crash marked the beginning of the Great Depression.
Black Monday (October 19, 1987)
Dow Jones Drop: -22.6% (508 points)
Cause: A global market crash triggered by panic selling, concerns over computerized trading programs, rising interest rates, and trade deficits. The crash wiped out over $500 billion in market value and remains the largest single-day percentage drop in Dow history.
Just finished listening to a 4h 30min @AcquiredFM podcast on the complete history of IPL cricket.
Here's the full story of how one sports franchise became the fastest-growing league in the world, now on track to surpass the NFL 🧵
As always, ask your questions below:
In 2007, Lalit Modi, an Indian media mogul, pitched a new cricket league that would forever change the sport.
Inspired by the NFL and EPL, his vision was huge - short, city-based matches with cheerleaders, Bollywood stars and primetime TV slots.
But how did it unfold?
The seeds were sown during the 2007 T20 World Cup. Yuvraj Singh had just smashed six sixes in an over against England's Stuart Broad. T20 cricket had won as THE format to captivate audiences.
Modi saw this as an opportunity to transform cricket from a traditional 5-day sport into a global entertainment phenomenon.
I spent all of yesterday reading 80,000 pages of the newly released JFK files.
Here are 10 new things I learned that I did not know previously 🧵
1/ Lee Harvey Oswald's Surveillance: The CIA monitored Oswald's visits to Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico City weeks before the assassination, revealing unredacted details of his interactions with foreign officials.
2/ CIA Negligence or Complicity: Documents suggest the CIA was aware of Oswald's activities but failed to act on concerns, fueling theories of agency involvement or incompetence.