[iclelland]

The original article is a bit better:

http://www.livemint.com/Companies/lDn53REhqvhqGoIxs9MgwJ/App...

Apple isn't actually prevented from selling either new or refurbished iPhones in India. What it appears that they cannot do, though, is open any Apple Stores there, because they don't (or can't) comply with a rule that "at least 30 per cent of the value of procurement of manufactured/processed products shall be sourced from Indian small industries" (from a similar story about Walmart: http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/30-local-sourcing-...)

It looks like what they wanted to do was to manufacture the original phones in China, as always, but do the refurbishment in India, and thereby call the refurbished phones "locally sourced". If they could do that, then they could run their own stores in the country, assuming that the refurb phones made up 30% of their product.

The Indian government rejected that idea, so I presume that Apple will need to continue selling through third-party retail stores, or come up with another way to comply with the rule.

[snambi]

If apple is serious, why don't they build a factory and make phones in india? When Ford, Hyndai, GM, Toyota can manufacture in India, why not apple?

[wmil]

Because opening Apple stores in India isn't worth changing their whole production and supply chain.

Ford, Hyndai, GM, Toyota are all car companies. They're used to dealing with local production requirements.