Will and grace

India has the will to become an electronics manufacturing hub, but it needs the grace of videshi companies for the tech to make it

- K. SUNIL THOMAS

AUGUST 3 WOULD have been just another Thursday for the electronics industry but for a seemingly business-as-usual notification issued by Directorate General of Foreign Trade. As the fine print of the notification became clear, realisation dawned across time zones that this was anything but business-as-usual. It ordered an immediate ban on import of personal computers, laptops, tablets, ultra-small computing devices and servers without a permit. About 65 per cent of India’s ₹66,000 crore market for these devices is imports.

While alarm bells rang and heads of electronics giants lined up outside ministers’ offices in the following days, the order was given a three-month breather a few days later, now set to come into effect from November 1. The hardware retail sector is bracing for an upending of the laptops and tabs supply chain, leading to price rise and reduced availability when the Diwali shopping season kicks off.

“Nothing is being disrupted,” said Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union minister for communications, electronics & IT. “We had eight to 10 months of detailed discussions with leading hardware and electronics manufacturers. Already 44 companies have registered for the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. We are implementing only what has been discussed and decided. A clear transition period has already been set [and] notified, too.”