Cook embraces start-up India as Make in India attracts him

A day before meeting PM, Apple CEO drops in at Zomato, Airtel

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It was a busy day for Apple Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tim Cook in Delhi with a slew of meetings with industry leaders and start-up bosses. On the last leg of his India tour, which will end with a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, Cook visited the Apple corporate office in Gurgaon on Friday.

On the way he made a short visit to the Zomato office and met its co-founders, Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah. Sources said Cook wanted a feel of an Indian start-up and the visit was part of his tour.

Goyal said on micro-blogging site Twitter, "Thanks for the visit to our office today, @tim_cook - was great catching up. Excited about your India plans!" Sources said Cook spent around 10 minutes at the Zomato office and was briefed about their operations.

Cook later met Airtel's top bosses. Airtel was the first partner of Apple in India and introduced the iPhone here. Airtel has nationwide 4G spectrum and with India on the cusp of a data revolution, Apple needs to strengthen its bond with the company. Currently, 270 million people in India use smartphones, up from 110 million a year ago.

"Apart from Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Mittal, others present at the meeting included Bharti Airtel Chief Executive Gopal Vittal. Mittal's son Kavin, founder of over-the-top messenger application Hike, was also present," said a source close to Airtel.

The meeting lasted for about an hour at Airtel's corporate office in Vasant Kunj.

Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Since he has made a statement that his commitment to India is for 1,000 years, I have to compliment Tim Cook. We need to work together for growth, manufacturing and value addition." Prasad and other Cabinet ministers are likely to meet Cook along with Modi on Saturday.

As China's market becomes more saturated and people across the globe upgrade their smartphones less frequently, Apple, Samsung and other vendors are keen to sell to India's middle class, which is projected to quadruple to 200 million by 2020.

The challenge for Apple is that its products are beyond the reach of many in India. In an interview with NDTV, Cook said Apple wants to lower the price of devices over time in India, sell pre-owned iPhones refurbished in the country and introduce Apple Pay.

Earlier this month, India had rejected Apple's request to import and sell refurbished iPhones to the world's second largest mobile population.

Apple doesn't feature in the top 10 in terms of smartphone market share in India. Cook in the TV interview said Apple is planning a long presence in India. "We are putting enormous energy here," he said. "We are not here for a quarter or two quarters or the next year or the next year, we are here for a 1,000 years."