Vaishnaw credits Make-in-India push for Bengaluru plant after Rahul Gandhi touts Karnataka ecosystem

Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw thanked the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for “acknowledging the success” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make-in-India programme on Wednesday (December 24, 2025).

Mr. Vaishnaw was responding to a Facebook post by Mr. Gandhi, who was praising Karnataka’s business ecosystem, going off of a news report on tech firm Apple’s supplier Foxconn hiring thousands of workers for a factory in Devanahalli.

“This is not just a statistic,” but “transformative job creation,” Mr. Gandhi wrote, referring to the report that 30,000 workers were hired in the facility in mere months. “What makes it even more powerful is that the unit is largely women-led, with around 80% women, most aged 19-24, and for many, this is their first job. Karnataka is setting an example by creating an ecosystem where manufacturing can grow at this scale and speed.”

Mr. Vaishnaw’s response, crediting Mr. Modi’s industrial policy instead, added: “As you have noted, we are becoming a producer economy as we implement our PM’s vision.”

Foxconn plant

Karnataka IT Minister Priyank Kharge separately credited the record reported ramp-up as a result of the State’s policies. “The ₹20,000 crore investment (in the manufacturing unit) spread across a 300-acre campus is delivering strong results,” Mr. Kharge wrote on X.

“Karnataka is India’s leading ESDM (Electronics System Design and Manufacturing) investment hub and a major chip design cluster,” Mr. Kharge wrote. “We now account for 50% of India’s electronic product companies, 40% of electronic design and 10% of electronics output. Anchored by our robust ESDM Policy, we are creating a powerhouse ecosystem for electronics design and high-volume manufacturing.”

“Over 80% of production (is) meant for exports, firmly plugging Karnataka into Apple’s global supply chain,” the State Minister added.