What just happened? The Indian government's push to bring more manufacturing jobs to the country has received a big boost with a slew of global PC brands expressing their interest in manufacturing laptops, tablets, all-in-one PCs, servers and ultra-small form factor devices in the South Asian nation.
In a press release, the Indian Ministry of Electronics and IT said the applications of 27 PC makers have been approved under a new production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme that will see the government dispense around $2 billion over six years to participating companies. Some of the better-known brands whose applications were approved include Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Foxconn, among others.
The Indian government claims that PLI 2.0 will provide a sizable boost to the Indian economy by creating up to 200,000 jobs and generating $360 million in inbound investment. The press release also claimed that the total value of manufactured hardware under the initiative would amount to $42 billion.
Addressing the national media, IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw claimed that "23 out of 27 approved applicants are ready to start manufacturing on day zero," which suggests India could take its first steps towards becoming a PC manufacturing hub sooner rather than later.
The news comes several weeks after the Indian media reported that the government received 38 applications, including from global PC makers like Dell, HP, Foxconn, Asus, Acer, and Flex, to manufacture laptops in the country as part of the PLI 2.0 scheme for IT hardware. To be eligible to receive the money, they will have to set up manufacturing facilities within India and ship a stipulated volume of products every year. Notably, Apple and Samsung did not apply to be part of the new scheme.
PLI 2.0 is devised on the success of a similar scheme for mobile phones that has seen several foreign device makers set up manufacturing facilities in the country. According to a recent report by Counterpoint Research, India is now the second largest mobile manufacturer in the world after China, thanks largely to companies like Apple, Xiaomi, Samsung, BBK Electronics and others producing smartphones as part of the government's 'Make in India' initiative.