On the contrary, my guess would be that this decision was taken at the highest political levels, and I applaud this decision. I read that the govt. set up a small committee of bureaucrats which recommended a waiver and I was hoping for this outcome. This would hopefully incentivise Apple to move at-least some of their assembly to Foxconn India. We need all the jobs and economic activity we can get.

I don't know, forced Import Substitution Industrialization (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Import_substitution_industrial...) hasn't worked very well around the world so far.

Worthy quote from that article:

"While import substitution policies might create jobs in the short run, as domestic producers replace foreign producers, economics theory shows that in the long run output and growth will be lower than it would otherwise have been. This is because import substitution denies the country the benefits to be gained from specialisation and foreign imports. The law of comparative advantage shows how countries will gain from trade. Moreover, protectionism leads to dynamic inefficiency: Domestic producers have no incentive from foreign competitors to reduce costs or improve products. Import substitution can impede growth through poor allocation of resources, and its effect on exchange rates harms exports."

I'm not sure how that would apply to veblen goods when the status they confer is tied up in actually not being produced locally.

Interesting point. I wonder how much of an economic impact these goods have? (Ie if they exist, do they matter?)