A Damocles sword hangs above laptop importers

India's government has softened its policy on imports, opting for a calibrated strategy to get laptops made locally. As it still risks pushing up our cost base, we need to track local prices

- 

After much criticism over a harkback to India's Licence Raj, the government has softened its approach to laptop imports-and prudently so. To fix the optics of abruptly ending the unrestricted entry of a swathe of electronic goods flooding in largely from China, the Centre has said that it is putting in place an "import management system," under which an authorization to ship in such hardware would be required, with okays to be handed out "within minutes." Crucially, this will not squeeze the quantum of imports. In fact, a single okay would let importers procure items from multiple overseas vendors across regions. This is a retreat from its licensing' proposal, which had caused a scarcity scare. Yet, it is clearly part of a calibrated policy shift in favour of import substitution. Over time, laptop marketers are expected to increase the share of locally made stuff, as companies must do to avail of production-linked incentives designed for that. With progress on localization under the Centre's watch and imports being tracked, it will amount to a Damocles s