India To Ensure Trusted Supply Chain For Its Digital Ecosystem: Meity Source On Concerns Over Laptop Import Curbs

India is determined to ensure a trusted supply chain for its digital ecosystem and will not compromise on the security of the internet, an IT Ministry official said on Wednesday, after the US, China and Korea raised concerns over the decision to impose import curbs on laptops and computers at a recent WTO meeting.

These concerns were flagged in the meeting of the WTO Committee on Market Access. It was chaired by Renata Crisaldo of Paraguay on October 16 in Geneva.

The senior IT Ministry official on Wednesday affirmed that India is determined, indeed justified, in ensuring that the digital backbone and ecosystem are trusted and without any compromise.

"...We are very clear and determined that we want an absolutely trusted supply chain for the Indian digital ecosystem, and especially, when we are just going to take off, and the entire internet is going to be built on servers, clouds and data centres," the official said in response to a question on the US and Korea raising concerns over India's decision to impose import restrictions on laptops and computers.

Ensuring security and trust are not in contravention to trade agreements or commitments, the official said, adding that India wants to build a trusted digital backbone and ecosystem, and on that, there is "zero compromise". 

The modalities of the new import management system may be announced soon.

On August 3, India imposed import restrictions on a host of IT hardware products such as laptops, personal computers (including tablet computers), microcomputers, large or mainframe computers, and certain data processing machines with a view to boosting domestic manufacturing and cutting imports from countries like China.

The regime would come into effect from November 1.

However, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal last week said that India will not impose licensing requirements on imports but will only monitor their inbound shipments.

The US has stated that the decision will have an impact on the trade of these products, including US exports to India, once they are implemented. America has also said that the decision is creating uncertainty for exporters and downstream users.