Apple free to open stores in India thanks to special exemption, report says - CNET

After months of back-and-forth, it looks as though Apple is on the cusp of officially getting a green light to open stores in India.

The Cupertino, Califoia-based company is currently disqualified from opening stores exclusively selling its own products due to Indian laws stating that a company doing so needs to source 30 percent of its products locally.

But Prime Minister Narendra Modi's govement will soon announce a three-year exemption to this rule for Apple, and other "cutting-edge" weste companies, Bloomberg reports.

Previous reports indicated that this relaxed requirement will only be good for two or three years. During that time, Apple would be expected to work out agreements with local manufacturers under which it would be able to buy its components locally and eventually meet the local sourcing rules. Apple acquires almost all of its components from China.