Global personal computing major HP on Thursday announced a collaboration with Google to manufacture Chromebooks in India.

Building the manufacturing ecosystem of laptops within India is in the focus now with the government looking to closely monitor the import of laptops into the country.

HP said the Chromebook devices will be manufactured at the company’s flex facility near Chennai, where it has been producing a range of laptops and desktops since August 2020.

The production of HP Chromebooks will start from October 2 and will cater to the demand for affordable PCs in India mainly from the education sector.

“This partnership will propel a joint vision to support the digital education ecosystem in India and help more students enhance their learning by providing affordable, safe, and high-quality computing devices to education authorities, schools, and institutions,” the company said in a statement.

HP said Chromebooks are leading devices in K-12 education, helping over 50 million students and teachers across the world. Equipped with ChromeOS, these devices have built-in accessibility and security features to deepen classroom connections and keep user information safe.

“HP is committed to advancing digital equity, and we have been driving many initiatives to enable digital education across India.

“Manufacturing Chromebook laptops in India will allow Indian students to get easy access to affordable PCs. By expanding our manufacturing operations, we continue to support the Make in India initiative,” Vickram Bedi, senior director — personal systems, HP India, said.

“At Google, we’ve been working closely with the local education ecosystem, supporting them in their transition to digital-first learning experiences through our products and teacher programmes.

“The local production of Chromebooks with HP marks an important step in our efforts to continue supporting the digital transformation of education in India.

“We hope this collaboration will help accelerate the adoption of technology in more schools so that every student and educator have access to the tools and skills to pursue their personal potential,” Bani Dhawan, head of education - South Asia, Google, said.

HP further said that it has significantly expanded its manufacturing operations in India since 2020 and from December 2021, started manufacturing a wide range of laptops in India, including HP EliteBooks, HP ProBooks, and HP G8 series notebooks. HP also expanded its portfolio of locally manufactured commercial desktops by adding various models of desktop mini towers (MT), mini desktops (DM), small form factor (SFF) desktops, and a range of All-in-One PCs.