Chromebook laptops will be produced in India for the first time by the American company Google in conjunction with the multinational technology corporation Hewlett Packard Inc. (HP). This was disclosed by Sundar Pichai, the Chief Executive Officer of Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
Pichai wrote on his social media page on X (formerly Twitter) that Google will start producing Chromebooks in India alongside HP. These will be the first laptops of this model to be manufactured in India, making computers affordable and securely available to students and schoolchildren in India.
Bloomberg reports that the assembly of these gadgets would begin on October 2 at the Flex facility located in Chennai in southern India. This is the same factory in which HP has been producing laptops and personal computers (PCs) since 2020. This move will strengthen Google’s position in the Indian market, allowing the company to establish local production and contend aggressively with Dell and ASUS despite India’s import duties on electronics. One year ago, India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) began registering companies that import laptops, tablets, and other IT equipment.
As a result of the decision that DGFT reached in August, India will begin imposing customs duties on the import of personal computers, laptops, and tablets to encourage the manufacturing of these goods by Indian manufacturers. If India placed import restrictions on laptops, it would likely lead to a shortage of electronic goods in the country’s market, which is highly dependent on imports. Additionally, to diversify supply chains away from their reliance on China, the government of India is trying to entice international manufacturers of laptops, tablets, and other electronic items.
The Indian government is offering attractive terms for beginning manufacturing in the country as part of a plan to financially encourage the creation of a national electronics industry with a value of 170 billion rupees (about $2.1 billion).
