New Delhi: Nearly 73% of India’s total laptop imports in the first three quarters of 2022 came from China, The Print reported, citing latest data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
India’s laptop imports surged to $5.24 billion between January and September 2022, of which about $3.82 billion worth of laptops came from China alone. This is 9% higher than the imports of $3.5 billion worth of laptops from China in the same period of 2021, the report said.
According to data, over the last five years, every three in four laptops that India has imported have come from China alone. However, that figure has been decreasing over the last few years.
In 2017, China accounted for 94.2% of India’s total laptop imports. Over the last three years, the figure has come down to around 73%.
The Print reported that India is now importing more laptops from Hong Kong ($0.55 billion), Taiwan ($0.12 billion), Singapore ($0.62 billion), and Vietnam.
Collectively, these countries accounted for $1.29 billion, or 25% of India’s laptop imports, in the first nine months of 2022, it said. In 2017, these countries didn’t even make up 5% of India’s laptop imports, it added.
But why is India not able to manufacture laptops locally?
India’s local laptop production weak
In a bid to cut imports of electronic products, especially from China, the Narendra Modi-led government last year launched a production-linked scheme (PLI) scheme worth Rs 7,350 crore to boost local manufacturing and exports of IT hardware such as laptops, tablets, all-in-one personal computers and servers.
“Production-linked incentive is a very simple term. Come to India, invest in India, set up your factory, manufacture produce, export outside and earn incentive,” then electronics and information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had told reporters.
However, as per a Business Standard report, the production under the scheme for the first year has been lacklustre.
It also reported that at least one global player is already planning to move out of the scheme after the second year because it feels the PLI scheme is not attractive enough.
Bharath Shenoy, senior market analyst at IDC India, told The Print that local manufacturing of laptops in India continues to be low, and in order to mass-produce laptops, the country needs labour skilled specifically for that.
“We do have some assembly lines working on low-end laptops, but for the premium segment, we have to rely on imports,” he told the news outlet.
India is also a signatory to the World Trade Organization’s Information Technology Agreement (ITA), which it joined in 1997. As per the agreement, it is required to eliminate tariffs on a range of products, including laptops, mobile phones, etc.
India says its experience with the ITA has been most discouraging, almost wiping out the IT industry from the country. The real gainer from the agreement, it says, has been China.