Lenovo, India’s second-largest PC manufacturer, on Friday launched PMA-compliant (Government of India’s Preferential Market Access Policy) PCs with its Made-in-India motherboard. This marks a significant milestone in strengthening and expanding Lenovo’s manufacturing footprint in India, said Saurabh Agrawal, Chief Operating Officer, Lenovo India.
This means Lenovo will now qualify for the Class 1 PMA bracket, with over 50 per cent of components being fulfilled through local manufacturing for a select range of products, Agrawal told newspersons at the company’s factory in Puducherry.
Lenovo’s announcement comes close on the heels of the unveiling of Lenovo’s Shared Support Center in Bengaluru in August this year, with a planned investment to advance local R&D and job creation in India.
With the recent announcement of approval to 27 firms under the PLI2.0 for IT Hardware Scheme, Lenovo has the additional impetus to increase PC production capability and, thereby, contribute to India’s Make in India initiative under the PLI 2.0 (Production Linked Incentive) scheme1, he said.
The Pondicherry plant, which was originally IBM’s, has an annual capacity to manufacture 1.4 million units with the utilisation being nearly half at present. The plant manufactures nearly 4,500 units in a day per shift with three shifts working at present. It manufactures 15 types of models, including the latest V15 and Thinkbook15, said a company official.
On the current market conditions, Agarwal said after a lull in the last couple of years, there are signs of recovery with 3-4 per cent growth, according to IDC. “Demand from PCs will not decline,” he said.
When asked if the company has any expansion plans, Agarwal said: “We are continuously working on that. The PLI is one step in that direction, and we are fully committed to that.”
The writer was in Puducherry at the company’s invitation
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Published on November 24, 2023
