Lenovo Mulls Scaling Up Local Production, Discussion On With Govt On PLI, Import Rules

IT hardware maker Lenovo plans to strengthen local manufacturing and is in discussion with the government to seek clarity on the PLI scheme and recent import restrictions, a senior company official said on Tuesday.
    
Lenovo India Commercial Business Executive Director Ajay Sehgal said that the company has been manufacturing in India for about the last two decades and now even exporting from India. 
    
"We need to understand more in detail about the new regulations. After understanding that part we will be able to comment better on how we can add more value in the manufacturing in India. Manufacturing in India is not new for us. If it is only a capacity enhancement, definitely, we know there is a merit to increase that part and we are moving in that direction," Sehgal said. 
    
He was responding to a question on Lenovo's view on Rs 17,000 crore production-linked incentive scheme for manufacturing IT hardware in the country. 
    
Lenovo leads the global PC market with a 24 per cent market share.
    
Sehgal was talking on the sidelines of new workstations ThinkStation PX, P7, and P5 built on Intel's Xeon processor that will sell at a starting price of Rs 1.2 lakh a unit.  
    
When asked about the impact of the recent government decision to restrict import of IT devices, Sehgal said  "Now, we need more clarity on the overall new regulation. I am referring to the new regulation which came up last Thursday. We are actively looking for more clarity from the government. Once the clarity comes, we will definitely be able to move faster." 
    
The government has announced to allow imports of IT devices including laptop, tablets, servers only to valid licence holders from November 1. 
    
Talking about business scope for new workstations in  India, Sehgal said the country's GDP is growing in the range of 6.5-7 per cent and growth is fuelling complexities in various segments such as manufacturing, healthcare to solve for innovation and meet growing customer demand. 
    
"The file sizes are becoming bigger, the resolution requirement is becoming bigger. This is not limited to only large enterprises, it is happening even in case of small enterprises, small architects or freelancers, in India. There is a clear need for products and solutions which solves a lot of these complexities that customers are facing. We see a huge opportunity in a product portfolio like the P series, which is going to solve a lot of these complex problems for the customers," Sehgal said.
    
He said the consumption of technology is higher in India compared to pre-covid time. 
    
"There are certain quarters where the market is going down. We are focusing on building up our capability with the help of new products, so that we should be able to solve a lot of problems which are not being tapped till now. We should be able to expand the market instead of focusing on what is the current market scenario," Sehgal said.