The sudden growth of learning-from-home by 40 percent in October-December has boosted the expectations of PC-maker Lenovo of growing by 25-30 percent in the current financial year, Economic Times reported.
The Indian PC market had delivered a strong 9.2 percent year-on-year growth in the July-September quarter, going by the same matrix.
“It has been a roller coaster ride this year, but we will grow by 25-30 percent for the full financial year if we remove the ELCOT deal. The ELCOT deal was 1.5 million PCs which has not happened this year.
“The consumer market is to be 4 million. It has been flat for the last 5 years. It is suddenly exploding because of learning from home and is growing by 40 percent,” Lenovo India CEO and Managing Director Rahul Agarwal said.
Lenovo had bagged an order from ELCOT to provide over 1.5 million laptops to students in Tami Nadu. ELCOT is the nodal agency for procuring electronic hardware and software for the Tamil Nadu government.
However, the growth may decline next fiscal Agarwal said, adding that the firm always grew in double digits and will continue to do so.
On the contrary, the Indian PC industry expects India to obtain a sizable share of the global market by becoming the hub for laptops and tablets, which would bring manufacturing value to $100 billion by 2025 and create five lakh more jobs.
“This will also result in a cumulative inflow of foreign exchange to the tune of $75 billion and investment of over $1 billion. At the same time, it would negate imports of targeted products from China leading to the reduced trade deficit and greater self-reliance,” Pankaj Mohindroo, Chairman of the India Cellular & Electronics Association, had said in a statement in November.
India’s import of laptops has increased by 42 percent from $2.97 billion to $4.21 billion in value terms in the last five years and is expected to reach close to $5 billion by March 2021, he said. “As much as 87 percent of total imports come from China,” he added.
“In absolute terms, India’s dependency on China is very high––it has increased from US$ 2.83 billion to US$ 3.65 billion during the last five years. For the year ending March 2021,” Mohindroo said.
