PC maker HP said on Thursday (September 28) that it is working with Google to produce Chromebooks in India to meet local demand. The Chromebooks will be manufactured at the company’s Flex plant near Chennai in Tamil Nadu. HP has been producing a range of laptops and desktops at the plant since 2020. Companies such as Samsung and Apple already meet much of domestic demand through local manufacturing. As the Indian government pushes to boost domestic manufacturing capabilities under its “Make in India” initiative, some global technology companies are either setting up their own units in the country or forming joint ventures with Indian companies.
PC and printing giant HP announced through a press release that it will join hands with Google to manufacture Chromebooks in the county to reiterate its commitment to the government’s “Make in India” initiative. The Chromebooks will be manufactured at the HP Flex facility near Chennai from October 2 to meet local requirements. The company said the new partnership will drive a shared vision and support India’s digital education ecosystem by providing affordable computing devices to educational authorities, schools and institutions.
HP has been producing a range of laptops and desktops at its Flex factory since August 2020. The company started manufacturing HP EliteBooks, HP ProBooks and HP G8 series laptop models in the country in December 2021.
“HP is committed to driving digital equity and we have been driving many initiatives to enable digital education across India. Manufacturing Chromebook laptops in India will give Indian students easy access to affordable PCs. By further expanding our manufacturing operations , we will continue to support the government’s Make in India initiative,” said Vickram Bedi, Senior Director, Personal Systems, HP India.
“Local production of Chromebooks with HP marks an important step in our continued support of the digital transformation of education in India,” said Bani Dhawan, Head of Education, South Asia, Google.
The Union Cabinet in early May approved a Rs. India will provide Rs 17,000 crore in incentives to promote local manufacturing of IT hardware such as tablets and laptops, and HP is one of the applicants for the latest Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme.Dell Technologies, Asus, Acer and Lenovo have also applied to manufacture laptops and other products in India
HP will become the latest global technology company to expand production in India. Apple has used the PLI scheme to expand its supplier base in India, while Samsung has opened a new laptop manufacturing unit at its Greater Noida plant.Google is also looking for Pixel phone assemblers in the country
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