Two of India’s most business-friendly southern states, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, recently amended laws to allow an increase the length of working shifts from eight to 12 hours in a reform urged by investors, including Apple and its contract manufacturer Foxconn.

Karnataka, where the Taiwanese supplier plans to build a major plant in Bengaluru, also amended legislation in February to allow for two-shift production, and to make it easier for women — a mainstay of electronics manufacturing in Asia — to work at night. Neighbouring Tamil Nadu, where Foxconn already makes iPhones for Apple, in April passed similar legislation. 

The liberalisation moves came at a time when India bulls in New Delhi, Hong Kong and New York were hyping the country, now the world’s most populous, as an emerging factory hub that can serve as a strong alternative to China as companies diversify their supply chains. Narendra Modi’s government is working actively to attract the kind of high-tech investment Apple has long made in China and Vietnam, whose selling point to multinationals includes flexible working hours.