Import curbs on laptops to boost domestic manufacturing: Rajeev Chandrashekhar

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

Regulating import of laptops is not about licence raj but to ensure only trusted and verifiable hardware and systems reach the Indian tech ecosystem, said Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a day after the government released a notification asking manufacturers of laptops, tablets, personal computers (PCs) and servers to have a valid licence for importing.

Chandrasekhar took to Twitter to explain the intent behind the move. He said, "It is the government's objective to ensure trusted hardware and systems, reduce import dependence and increase domestic manufacturing of this category of products."

"This is not at all about licence raj. It is about regulating imports to ensure trusted and verifiable systems and ensuring India tech eco-system uses trusted and verified systems only that are imported and/or domestically manufactured trusted systems / products," he added.

According to Chandrasekhar, India is becoming one of the world's fastest growing markets for digital products including laptops, servers etc. India and Digital Nagriks will consume millions of Digital products in coming Techade.

Rapid digitilization / cloudification of the economy and rapid growth of India's digital economy is fueling demand growth, he said.

️India is becomng one of worlds fastest growing markets for Digital products includng Laptops, Servers etc.

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️India and DigitalNagriks will consume millions of Digital products in coming Techade.

️Rapid digitilization / cloudification of our economy AND rapid growth of our… https://t.co/gdMcNnsEUT

— Rajeev Chandrasekhar

As per the new rules, the only exemption on the import licence will be for up to 20 of such items per consignment for the purpose of research and development, testing, benchmarking and evaluation, repair and re-export and for product development.

Industry experts said, while the move was expected to happen to boost 'Make in India' initiative combined with the PLI Scheme for IT hardware manufacturing, but the immediate implementation of this can disrupt in the industry in the near term if they fail to ramp up domestic production capacity quickly.