Free laptop scheme makes Lenovo top PC market

The company has been supplying laptops to Tamil Nadu government for the free laptops scheme. It is now executing an order for 6.5 lakh laptops, of which two-thirds have already been supplied. The balance will be supplied in three months. "The scheme will also help the company to become number one in the PC segment," said Rahul Agarwal, managing director and CEO, Lenovo India adding that the company usually gets 150 days to execute the order.

Partnering with chip manufacturer Intel India, Lenovo also announced a campaign called 'Start up with Lenovo' an initiative to increase computer penetration in the State.

Agarwal said the computer penetration in India is the lowest at around 10 per cent, which is the lowest among developing countries like South Africa (18 per cent), Turkey (49 per cent) and Malaysia (64 per cent). This is a significant step towards the larger Digital India movement announced by the Central government, says Lenovo.

The major bottlenecks for PC penetration are affordability, finance and awareness. To address these challenges, the company has tied up with Bajaj Fin Serv to offer interest-free EMI scheme. It has also tied up with Tata Docomo for easy internet access by providing free dongles. The initiative was keeping with the Centre's Digital India effort, Agarwal said.

"According to some research on state-wise employability of engineers, Tamil Nadu in fact lags behind even states like Uttar Pradesh. There is a significant merit in increasing technology intervention to make the youth more employable and this initiative will contribute to the same," he said.

In the first phase, Lenovo will be rolling out this initiative in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. The company had earlier conducted a pilot programme of the initiative in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Gujarat.