Akhilesh's 'laptop' promise hits Kanpur

Nestled on the banks of the river Ganges, Kanpur stands as one of north India's major industrial centers with a rich historical, religious, and commercial importance. Believed to have been founded by the king Hindu Singh of the erstwhile state of Sachendi, Kanpur was originally known as 'Kanhpur'.

Of late, the city has became an important center of the textile, leather, and small arms industries. As of now, the city owns many leather tanneries, and over a dozen defence ordinance factories. Besides, the city, also the second largest industrial hub in Northern India after New Delhi, is also home to fertilizer, chemicals, two wheelers, soaps, hosiery, engineering, and pan masala industries. In fact, the pan masala industry is the largest employer in the region as well as the largest source of tax for the government. The famous brands 'Pan Bahaar' and 'Pan Parag' and many others originated in the city, which was known as the 'Manchester of India' during the 20th century.

Moreover, the only unit of the Indian Institute of Pulse Research and one of the three units of the National Sugar Institute is situated in Kanpur which reflects the strong agrarian nature of industries here.

Kanpur also houses one of the software technology parks of India. But ironically, the city has not been faring well when it comes to the IT sector. The market has witnessed a slowdown in the past three months and dealers blame the state government for the same. "The Akhilesh Yadav government promised to offer free laptops to the students after their win in the recently held Uttar Pradesh elections. Due to this, our business has been hit," said Yogesh Aggarwal, CEO of Aryan Computers and Peripherals. Himanshu Kohli of Comexcell Technologies echoed similar views saying, " There are many reasons for the downfall of the IT market in the last few months, and government distributing laptops is certainly one of the reasons for it. I think the market has witnessed a slump of around 25%."

However the dealers hope the market will revive in the coming months, considering that the summer holidays of the students will be over, which will give a fillip to the business to a great extent. "Past few months have been very dull. But we hope to do good business from May end, when the summer break of the students will end," said Aggarwal.

Talking about the top selling IT product of the market, it is laptop. And brands like Lenono, HP, Dell win the race. The market, that generates around Rs 80 to 90 crore of revenue every year, gets in maximum business from SOHO followed by the education sector.

The market has an IT association named Kanpur Computer Dealer Association. While some say that the association is quite active, some are of the view that the group has not been playing its pivotal role in solving problems related to payments, transportation or taxation, which dealers face.

Market Name: Kanpur

Market Location: Uttar Pradesh

Surrounding Markets: Lucknow, Faizabad, Agra

Computer Association: Kanpur Computer Dealer Association

Prominent Dealers: Aryan Computers and Peripherals, Comexcell Technologies, Bhukania Computeronic, Hitech Computer Agencies, Well Known Computers

Business Verticals: SOHO, education

Number of active dealers: Over 100