Taiwanese laptop giant Asus has announced plans to relocate key component suppliers from its primary manufacturing hub in China to India, providing a significant boost to the Modi government's Make-In-India initiative. The company is partnering with contract manufacturer Flex to open a new factory in Chennai, taking advantage of the government's revamped Rs 17,000-crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for IT hardware.

With a $15 billion market valuation, Asus intends to aggressively expand its manufacturing operations in India, relying on the government's PLI scheme. This move comes as the company anticipates rapid growth in demand in the Indian market, despite economic slowdowns in China, the United States, and other major Western markets.

"Asus is one of the fastest-growing notebook brands in India," said Peter Chang, general manager of Asus' Asia Pacific System Business Unit, to TOI. "We will now expand our product line-up and business operations here in line with the growing scale of business as well as market potential."

Currently, nearly 80% of Asus's production comes from China, with the remainder coming from Taiwan, Brazil, Europe, and Indonesia. Chang envisions India becoming Asus's second or third-largest manufacturing site globally in the coming years, thanks to the PLI scheme's facilitation of growth.