Lenovo: Budget doesn’t go far enough to encourage PC manufacturing in India

The 2016-17 Union Budget highlighted the importance of technology in every aspects of life, from agriculture to skill development to big schemes of the government.

“Technology has been recognized as an important enabler across initiatives ranging from agriculture to skill development to PDS to public procurement. Also, the announcements on the Rural Digital Literacy and the Digital Saksharta Abhiyan are positive strides to bolster the ‘Digital India’ vision,” said Rahul Agarwal, the managing director of Lenovo India.

‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ remained important items on the agenda in the Budget this year.

“The changes in the customs and excise duty rates on components & sub-components reaffirm the ‘Make in India’ vision of the government. This will help in building a robust component ecosystem in the country, which is very important for becoming a manufacturing hub,” said Rahul.

Though the overall sentiment was positive, Agarwal was hoping the government would boost PC manufacturing in the country, a step direly needed to revive the PC market.

“While the government’s focus has remained on giving an impetus to domestic manufacturing, we were hoping to see the duty differential policy being extended to PC manufacturing but could not happen. We will have to engage further with the government in this area,” he said.

(Image credits: lenovo)