Three contract workers died of asphyxiation late on Monday while carrying out maintenance work at a Tata Electronics factory in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, that makes components for Apple iPhones, triggering investigations by the companies and the state government.
The men were cleaning an effluent treatment plant at the facility near Uddanapalli in Krishnagiri district when they inhaled gas while inspecting an external nano-filtration tank, according to district official C. Dinesh Kumar. The treatment plant is operated by Nalco Water, part of US-headquartered Ecolab.
Krishnagiri Collector C. Dinesh Kumar said there were no proper safety measures in place while the workers were handling the effluent treatment plant, and that the district administration is inquiring into the incident. Tamil Nadu Industries Minister Virudhai Magal Keerthana said the incident “will be thoroughly investigated, and appropriate action will be taken based on the findings.”
Tata Electronics, Apple and Nalco Water did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. The identities of the three workers and their contractor have not been made public.
There has been no impact on production, according to two industry sources, because the facility was closed this week for the Hindu festival of Diwali. Tata’s electronics unit accounts for roughly 40 per cent of iPhone assembly in India, with Foxconn making up the rest — a measure of how central the Hosur site has become to Apple’s push to diversify manufacturing beyond China since 2017.
The deaths are the latest in a run of setbacks at Apple’s Indian supply chain. A fire halted production at Tata’s Hosur components plant in September 2024; in June this year Tamil Nadu’s pollution control board warned the same plant of a forced shutdown over alleged wastewater contamination of wells in nearby farmland, a matter Tata said was later dropped; and in June and July a ransomware group posted more than 200,000 files stolen from a Tata iPhone plant in Hosur on the dark web.
Key details of the incident, including the circumstances inside the tank, rest on accounts given to Reuters by sources with direct knowledge and by district officials, and have not yet been confirmed in a public statement by Tata, Apple or Nalco Water.
Sources: Reuters, “Three workers die at Tata’s India iPhone parts factory in latest safety incident” (https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/fires-protests-pollution-apples-supply-chain-woes-india-2026-11-10/); The New Indian Express, via Reuters; The Hindu, via Reuters.
Note: This is a file photo of an iPhone, not the Hosur plant.
