Low laptop prices fire Kanpur dowry market

Low prices of laptops have brought excitement to Kanpur's dowry market.

Middle-class households have now started including the item in the dowry list given to the bride's parents, following the fall in prices.

Thus, a major market has emerged in this segment, something not foreseen either by the manufacturers or by the sellers, says Upendra Kumar, managing director, Uptec, a UP-based outfit that sells hardware, besides giving computer training and manufacturing educational software.

Earlier, the gadgets in demand were the gramophone and then the record-changer. These gradually gave way to two-in-one gadgets and three-in-one, which, in turn, were supplanted by VCDs and VCRs. Along with these, came the motor cycle.

The latest is the laptop. Since the desktop is now no stranger to a well-heeled groom, the bride's parents are required to fill in the important gap of there not being a laptop, the price of Rs 30,000-35,000 being no longer seen as unaffordable.

This has brought windfall to Uptec, which sells Compaq computers. The firm is working on special dowry packages.

This apart, because of there being 40,000 engineering seats in the state, parents who want their wards to become engineers are taking loans from banks in order to buy laptops. Many of these are wards of third- or fourth-class government employees.