India 'will pay price' for high-tech sector neglect
India's projected dependence on China for $35bn worth of computer hardware in 2010, or more than a third of expected demand, highlights the Indian government's neglect of technology manufacturing, an Indian business-industry group has warned.
Growing domestic demand will mean India's reliance on hardware imports from China will mushroom because of affordable prices and more competitive products fostered by Chinese policies, according to a report from the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham).
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China had earmarked chip manufacturing as a strategic industry whereas Indian government policies had sorely neglected developing hardware manufacturing, said Anil Agarwal, the president of Assocham.
As a result, penetration of personal computers in India remained "abysmally lower" than in China. There are about 10m PCs in India now, a penetration of fewer than 10 units per 1,000 inhabitants, compared with more than 40 units per 1,000 in China.
Assocham forecast that India's demand for IT hardware, including computers and chips, would reach $93bn (�73bn, ￡50bn) in 2010. Domestic production is exp-ected to reach $23bn in that year; half of the remaining $70bn worth of demand will be fulfilled by Chinese imports.
Computer penetration could grow to 25m by 2008 if a low-cost PC is introduced. But the local manufacture of hardware - key to bringing down prices - was still "minuscule, microscopic, assembly-dependent and fragmented", said Assocham.
India had spent the past eight years weighing hardware manufacturing policies but so far had made little progress with developing infrastructure, logistics support and incentives needed to ensure the quality of Indian hardware products "do not remain inferior".
India's domestic hardware market is estimated at about $24bn. A third of sales come from domestic products while the rest is imported from China, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, the European Union and the US.
While multinational companies are establishing research and development in India, few have opened computer hardware factories in the country.
In contrast, phonemakers such as Nokia and Motorola have for the past several years manufactured handsets in India, bringing down prices and helping fuel explosive growth in the number of mobile phone subscribers.
IDC, the technology research firm, reported in July that India's domestic IT market grew 26 per cent in 2005 compared with the previous year, driven by strong demand from businesses.
Sales of laptop personal computers grew 77 per cent, while hand-held smart devices rose 275 per cent.
印度电脑硬件将严重依赖中国
印度联合工商会(Assocham)警告称，到2010年，预计印度有价值350亿美元的电脑硬件将依赖于中国，占预期需求的三分之一以上，这突显出印度政府对科技制造业的忽视，不如中国那样积极。
这家印度商业产业集团最新公布的一份报告显示，日益增长的国内需求将意味着，印度对中国电脑硬件的依赖程度将迅速提高，因为在中国政策的推动下，中国的硬件价格更低廉，产品更具竞争力。
印度联合工商会总裁阿尼尔?阿加瓦尔(Anil Agarwal)表示，中国已将芯片制造视为一个战略行业，而印度政府的政策却严重忽视了硬件制造业的发展。
由此带来的结果是，印度个人电脑(PC)普及率“大大低于”中国。
目前，印度拥有约1000万台个人电脑，相当于每1000人不到10台，而中国却超过了40台。
印度联合工商会预计，到2010年，印度对电脑和芯片等IT硬件的需求将达到930亿美元。
届时，印度的国内产量预计将达到230亿美元，其余价值700亿美元的需求将由中国进口产品满足。
如果引进低成本个人电脑，到2008年，印度的电脑拥有量可能会增至2500万台。然而，印度联合工商会表示，推低价格的关键在于硬件的本土制造，但目前这一行业仍“规模很小，依赖于组装，且四分五裂”。
该组织表示，过去8年，印度一直在斟酌硬件制造业方面的政策。要确保印度硬件产品“不再处于劣势”，就需要发展基础设施，增强物流支持，形成激励机制，但到目前为止，这些方面仍未取得多少进展。
印度国内硬件市场价值估计约为240亿美元。在销售的产品中，三分之一来自国内，其余部分则从中国、韩国、新加坡、台湾、欧盟(EU)和美国进口。
