{"id":37750,"date":"2023-10-18T07:10:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T01:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=37750"},"modified":"2025-04-23T01:19:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T19:49:32","slug":"google-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/google-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Manufacturing Plans in India"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in news?<\/li>\n<li>Chromebook Manufacturing in India<\/li>\n<li>News Summary: Google manufacturing plans in India<\/li>\n<li>What is the significance of the manufacturing of the Chromebooks?<\/li>\n<li>Why is local electronics manufacturing important for India?<\/li>\n<li>Current Status<\/li>\n<li>What else is India doing apart from seeking to incentivise manufacturing in the country?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in news?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/quest-upsc-notes\/prime-minister\/\" target=\"_blank\"><u>Prime Minister<\/u><\/a> Narendra Modi and the CEO of Alphabet, Sundar Pichai discussed the company\u2019s plan to establish an electronics manufacturing ecosystem in India.<\/li>\n<li>During this interaction, PM Modi appreciated Google\u2019s partnership with Hewlett Packard (HP) to manufacture Chromebook laptops in India.\n<ul>\n<li>Alphabet is the parent company of Google.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Chromebook Manufacturing in India<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Chromebooks are laptops that run on Google\u2019s Chrome operating system.\n<ul>\n<li>Chromebooks are among the most popular laptops in educational institutions worldwide.<\/li>\n<li>However, these are yet to find mainstream traction in India, where most laptops run on Microsoft\u2019s Windows operating system.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>These are being built at the <u>Flex facility near Chennai<\/u>, where HP has been producing a range of laptops and desktops since August 2020.<\/li>\n<li>Production began on October 2, and will cater to the demand, mainly from the education sector, for affordable PCs in India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>News Summary: Google manufacturing plans in India<\/h2>\n<h2>What is the significance of the manufacturing of the Chromebooks?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The production of Chromebooks in India is a major boost to the country\u2019s electronics manufacturing ambitions.<\/li>\n<li>It has put Google among the most high-profile names to begin manufacturing in India.<\/li>\n<li>This is significant as companies all over the world are <u>looking to diversify supply chains in response to geopolitical uncertainties<\/u>.<\/li>\n<li>The manufacture of Chromebooks in India will help Google compete more effectively with Windows computers built by companies such as Dell, Lenovo, and Asus.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why is local electronics manufacturing important for India?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Potential manufacturing hub\n<ul>\n<li>At present, companies, especially from the US, are <u>looking to diversify away from China<\/u>, which has been the hub of such manufacturing for decades.<\/li>\n<li>Against this backdrop, India seeks to establish itself as a \u201ctrusted partner\u201d in global supply chains.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Rising imports of electronic goods\n<ul>\n<li>Indian imports of electronic goods and laptops\/ computers have increased in the last few years.\n<ul>\n<li>During April-June this year, the import of electronic goods increased to $6.96 billion from $4.73 billion in the year-ago period.<\/li>\n<li>The biggest share of imports is in the category of personal computers, including laptops and palmtops.<\/li>\n<li>Under this category, imports from China stood at $558.36 million in April-May this year as against $618.26 million in the year-ago period.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>China accounts for roughly 70-80% of Indian imports of personal computers and laptops.<\/li>\n<li>New Delhi would like to change this situation as soon as possible.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Current Status<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>As the window for the Centre\u2019s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme closed in August, more than 40 companies applied to participate in the programme to manufacture laptops, computers and servers in India.<\/li>\n<li>These companies included Dell, HP, Asus, Acer, and Lenovo. Apple chose to not apply.<\/li>\n<li>The government is expected to clear applications of around 30 companies soon, the majority of which will start production from April 2024.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What else is India doing apart from seeking to incentivise manufacturing in the country?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>India has also adopted policy changes to discourage imports from China.<\/li>\n<li>Licensing requirements on import of laptops and computers\n<ul>\n<li>In August 2023, the government had attempted to impose a licensing requirement on the import of laptops and computers.<\/li>\n<li>However, it was forced to delay the implementation of the directive until October 31 after a strong pushback from the industry.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Introduction of import management system\n<ul>\n<li>The Centre has now introduced the so-called import management system.<\/li>\n<li>Under this system, companies will be required to register and disclose data related to their imports.<\/li>\n<li>This includes countries from which they import electronic hardware such as laptops and personal computers, and domestic sales value.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Quota system using credit formula\n<ul>\n<li>The quota system, as envisaged earlier, has been put on the back burner for now.<\/li>\n<li>It will be implemented in a staggered manner by means of a credit formula.\n<ul>\n<li>Under this formula, the government will create a ratio between domestic production and imports, and depending on the former, will allow the latter.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Supplies from trusted sources\n<ul>\n<li>Eventually, the government will also impose a condition on companies to reorient their supplies from \u201ctrusted sources\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>This move is squarely aimed at reducing import dependence on China.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1)\u00a0What is Google?<\/h3>\n<p>Google is a well-known internet search engine. It was originally called BackRub. Sergey Brin and Larry Page started developing it in 1996 as a research project at Stanford University. They used it to find files on the internet. They later decided to change the name to Google, inspired by the term googol.<\/p>\n<h3>Q2)\u00a0What is production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme?<\/h3>\n<p>Production Linked Incentive, or PLI, scheme of the Government of India is a form of performance-linked incentive to give companies incentives on incremental sales from products manufactured in domestic units. It is aimed at boosting the manufacturing sector and to reduce imports.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-economics\/google-chromebook-manufacturing-india-8986877\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Modi speaks to Google\u2019s Pichai, why are Google manufacturing plans in India so important?<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/economictimes.indiatimes.com\/industry\/cons-products\/electronics\/pm-modi-meets-google-ceo-sundar-pichai-discusses-plans-to-expand-indias-electronics-manufacturing-ecosystem\/articleshow\/104476517.cms?from=mdr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Economic Times<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chromebooks are laptops that run on Google\u2019s Chrome operating system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37751,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}