MAIT to recast itself, to look beyond manufacturers

The IT hardware industry body, Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT), is all set to broaden its horizon to look at the industry in entirety and not just manufacturers. The association is in the process of integrating the IT channel partners and SME manufactures into its ecosystem.

Amar Babu, President, MAIT and MD, Lenovo India said, “It is time for almost 32 years old association to grow beyond being ‘IT hardware vendors only’ association. The IT industry’s growth depends on various constituents and channels are critical to this ecosystem. We will form a channel partner forum to work closely with the channels community in the country.”

The association is soon going to hold the Annual General Meeting (AGM) at Delhi and launch unveil its new look that will see some significant changes in the way the executive committee is structured and they may also have an advisory council.

Babu stressed that though MAIT as an association has evolved, but the organisation has not been able to get a clear view around the  online vs the traditional channel.

He said, that the it is his personal view that there should be a healthy competition in the market. “Online is definitely an innovative route to the market, but all routes should get their own space, there is enough business for each of them.”

According to him, the online channel makes about 10% of the over all IT channel system, rest is all traditional, however, traditional channel has begun facing certain challenges around aggressive pricing, these concerns need to be taken care of for a healthy business environment.

MAIT has released its Annual Industry Performance Review for the financial year 2013-14 that finds the PC market to has witnessed a sluggish growth of only 6% ‘MAIT-IMRB ITOPS’ report involved face-to-face interviews with over 28,000 respondents selected randomly across 35 cities in India.

While the Inkjet Printer category saw a rebound, Tablets growth dropped to 76% (from 424%  in 2012-2013). Smartphone reports a phenomenal growth of 244% thanks to lead by introduction of low cost smartphones and reduction in data tariff. Also, the server segment showed 58% growth thanks to increased uptake from SMBs.

Anwar Shirpurwala, Executive Director of MAIT opines, “As the IT Hardware market touches $ 12.43 billion, we are optimistic about more than double digit growth of tablet PCs, Notebooks, Inkjet printers for the year 2014-2015. We expect 100%  growth of smartphone during this time period with 4G networks getting rolled out and increased uptake of 3G data services. Also, the government promising to take corrective steps to boost manufacturing, we expect the IT hardware sector to benefit from it in the coming years.”