Laptops for Rs 5k at Nehru Place

Laptops cost a lot of money, right? Wrong. Second-hand laptops costs just
about Rs 5,000 for a 486 model, which is about five to seven years old, in Nehru
Place. A PIII machine may cost Rs 25,000. More recent P4 avatars command around
Rs 38,000.

The government of India is a cash cow for the middle men or contractors. The
take with the government is that for a requirement of x number of laptops, the
exact configurations of the same are very vague. For a tender of laptops
required at a ministry
level, there is nothing that specifies that the laptops have to be brand new.
The middlemen buy second-hand laptops, recondition the same, and sell it to the
government at a higher price. Often at 300 percent margins!

In the US, there are auctions of reconditioned computers. Reconditioning of
laptops is also done here, right in the heart of the city. The process involves
adding some memory or making other cosmetic changes in the hard disk.

A PII laptop may be given a PIII processor and sold as a PIII laptop and
never mind the performance.

Another interesting trend is the exodus of Taiwanese products in India. So we
have a group of traders importing a batch of laptops, branding it under some
fancy name and selling it in the gray market.

The number of second-hand laptops traded in the Nehru Place is around 100
units a month.

SUDARSHANA BANERJEE

(CNS)