No intention to start mfg unit in India: Dell

By agencies   |   Monday, 30 January 2006, 20:30 IST
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DAVOS: Even as Dell Computers’ founder and CEO Michael Dell, who will visit India this March, is impressed with the Indian skilled manpower, he certainly has no intention to start a manufacturing base in India. This comes in the wake of the absence of an ecosystem required to manufacture personal computers. The Dell chief said, “The inverted duty structure in India does not encourage manufacturing in the country. We are importing finished products to India and has no plans to manufacture there as it is not cost competitive.” He urged the Indian government to facilitate the setting up of a fab, which would attract ancillary manufacturers to set up base in the country. “As the general economy needs fuel, information technology economy needs semiconductors. I am aware that there is some movement on the AMD front but that, I presume, is not for setting up a fab,” he added. While the growth of the PC market in India has been encouraging for the PC major, the Dell chief feels what could take business to the next level in India would be allowing companies to sell directly on the Net. “The Indian Government should facilitate the off take of e-commerce so that companies like Dell can become more competitive and sell cheaper computers in India,” Dell added. Besides this, in order to expand their presence in the Indian market the company is going to add 5,000 jobs in the next two years, bringing its total workforce in the country to 15,000. At least 1,000 of workers will staff a new call center on the outskirts of New Delhi. And the other new hires will staff call centers in the southern cites of Bangalore, Hyderabad and one in the northern state of Punjab, according to the company statement. Dell is also planning to add staff at its product-testing center in Bangalore.