Importing Laptops Into India Will Now Require a Permit

livemint.com:

Make in India program, which offers incentives for manufacturing electronics and other high-tech goods locally, with eligible companies standing to recoup millions of dollars of their investments. The country initially targeted the program at smartphones and has since expanded it to other areas, including drones and semiconductors as well as tech hardware.

Imports of computing devices covered under the new restrictions, which include computers and servers, totaled nearly $10 billion from January to December 2022, according to official data, or about 1.4% of India’s overall imports last year. The new rules also take aim at China, the main source of India’s laptop imports.

Tensions with China soared in 2020 following the intense clash between the security forces of the two countries along the disputed Himalayan borders in eastern Ladakh. The incident resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers, prompting the militaries of the two countries to deploy more than 50,000 soldiers equipped with the latest weaponry and artillery along the border.

In retaliation, India moved to ban TikTok, the popular Chinese video-streaming platform, and the message app WeChat. It put in place a mechanism to strictly scrutinize any investment proposal from China, and barred Chinese companies such as Huawei Technologies and ZTE from being part of India’s massive 5G rollout program.

Tax and enforcement authorities have opened investigations into leading Chinese mobile makers like Vivo, Xiaomi, Oppo and OnePlus for alleged tax evasion, which the companies deny. India doesn’t currently have prominent local personal-computer makers, while global companies such as HP and Dell Technologies currently manufacture locally in limited