File pic: Autos move by way of the safety test on the entrance of the Tata Electronics plant in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, which makes Apple iPhone parts
Chosen
A air pollution regulator has alleged wastewater discharged from a Tata parts factory for Apple’s iPhone has contaminated the groundwater for close by farms and warned of a pressured shutdown except Tata provides a passable rationalization.
Tata Electronics is central to Apple’s push to diversify iPhone manufacturing past China and is the second-biggest provider to Apple in South Asia after Taiwan’s Foxconn.
The Tata plant beneath investigation is in Hosur in Tamil Nadu and makes again panels and different parts for iPhones. Farmland homeowners close to the plant had complained for months to the Tamil Nadu Air pollution Management Board that wastewater from the factory was contaminating their land and open wells.
The complaints led to 5 state inspections between December 2025 and Might 2026, in response to particulars from a beforehand unreported regulatory discover dated Might 25 and reviewed by Reuters.
The inspections discovered that Tata discharged wastewater right into a rainwater harvesting pond inside its facility and that the pond overflowed to infect “groundwater within the open wells positioned within the adjoining agricultural lands”, the air pollution board’s warning discover to Tata stated.
Tata had not taken any corrective actions on directions issued by the air pollution board in a earlier letter dated December 23, 2025, it stated within the three-page discover.
Tata Electronics informed Reuters in an announcement it had commissioned an unbiased evaluation by way of an accredited laboratory and that the examine decided the corporate was “in full compliance with all regulatory norms”.
Tata stated it was “dedicated to accountable enterprise practices and safety of the surroundings and native communities”, and that it had responded to air pollution authorities, though giving no additional particulars.
The air pollution board in its Might discover requested Tata to clarify why energy to the unit ought to not be reduce and the unit closed for its alleged breach of the principles.
Apple, which has strict guidelines on how its suppliers deal with wastewater, and the Tamil Nadu authorities didn’t reply to requests for remark from Reuters.
Apple’s struggles in India
Firms have typically confronted disciplinary motion from air pollution authorities in India. In 2024, Mercedes-Benz improved wastewater and air air pollution administration at its solely automobile factory in India after officers detected lapses in compliance with environmental regulation.
The Surroundings Ministry informed Parliament in February that 4.4% of 544,364 industries had been discovered non-compliant with environmental requirements within the final 5 years, and three,600 had been shut down by air pollution management departments.
The Tata discover provides to a sequence of points which have dogged Apple’s India provide chain. A hearth at Tata’s Hosur plant in September 2024 halted iPhone element manufacturing briefly, whereas a hearth in September 2023 at former provider Pegatron’s iPhone plant shut manufacturing for days.
In 2024, a Reuters investigation discovered that main Apple provider Foxconn systematically excluded married girls from iPhone meeting jobs at considered one of its crops in India, though the corporate stated on the time that it complied with all legal guidelines.
India is projected to make 26 per cent of all iPhones globally in 2026, from simply 6 per cent 4 years in the past, in response to analysis agency Counterpoint.
Printed on June 13, 2026
Source link
#Tatas #iPhone #parts #factory #contaminated #farmland #water #alleges #TNPCB
