Presently all computers and computer-related items being sold in India are by and large foreign-branded imported from other countries. These foreign companies deliberately sell printers at much lower cost aiming to mint money by having abnormally high costs of ink-cartridges. Union government must impose condition on these manufacturers-importers for compulsory manufacture of ink-cartridges in India with authority to any desiring Indian companies for manufacture of cartridges thus eliminating monopoly of printer-manufacturers to manufacture/import ink-cartridges by them only. It will boost dyeing Indian industries because of large-scale invasion of Chinese and other imported goods in Indian markets. Indian companies should also be authorised refill ink-cartridges without affecting warranty of printers because of using refilled ink-cartridges. Ink-cartridges costing several thousands of rupees are refilled in just Rs 200-300.
Indian government should impose condition with immediate effect where manufactured computer-related items are not being directly imported from the country of origin where the brand-owning company exists. For example many of such items are being imported in India from countries like China etc even though brand-owning companies are based in Japan, Germany etc. Bureau of Indian Standards should call meeting of printer-manufacturers including representatives of foreign companies to minimise types of ink-cartridges. Presently largest selling brands like Hewlett Packard (HP) and Samsung have too many types of ink-cartridges of similar shape and size for their vast range of inkjet and laser printers. It is not difficult to standardise so many ink-cartridges in a limited number to be used uniformly in different models of inkjet and laser printers. Such standardisation will heavily bring down cost of ink-cartridges.
Madhu Agrawal
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
