personal computer sales in india are likely to grow at a meagre 20 per cent in the present fiscal according to manufacturers association of information technology the apex hardware body had earlier projected a 30 per cent growth around april this year pc sales grew by a healthy 34 per cent in the previous fiscal year ending april 2001 mait is expected to announce the results next month the findings of its joint biannual industry survey it conducts along with imrb our survey is currently underway but the way economy has been performing it seems more likely to be in the vicinity of 20 per cent said mait director vinnie mehta maits revised projection of 20 per cent is not far from the projections made by idc india which had last month revised its earlier projection from 3435 per cent to around 16 per cent the fall can be deemed to be drastic compared to 56 per cent growth in the previous year as per idcs estimates however consultancy firm skoch has warned that the present calendar year could witness a negative growth of up to 20 per cent there has been a downward trend right from the beginning of this year there was negative growth in julyseptember quarter which will shrink further in the present quarter consumer segment and small and medium enterprises are simply not buying due to the current climate said skoch managing director sameer kochhar during the first six months ending september the dutyfree market had witnessed a negative growth of three per cent while the consumer market growth was pegged at 5 per cent in other segments such as smes the growth during aprilseptember has been 5 per cent while the government segment which included banking and finance witnessed a growth rate of 25 per cent the corporate segment growth rate had been just four per cent he added idc has said the consumer spending would remain depressed in the year and the slowdown will cut across all segments with only government finance and education segments continuing to buy at a relatively healthy rate the local assemblers would gain due to buyers tendency to seek the most costeffective deals under such a situation the it research firm which had earlier pegged the growth in second quarter ending september 2001 at 25 per cent later said it will be no more than 7 per cent over the same quarter last year in the first quarter ending june 2001 pc sales had recorded a growth of 11 per cent as per idc indian companies like hcl and zenith are expected to be the worst hit with their share going down from 17 per cent in the last fiscal to 10 per cent mnc brands like hewlettpackard compaq and ibm and the unorganised market are likely to gain at the expense of indian players according to kochhar according to maitimrb figures 18 million computers were sold in the previous fiscal year it is unlikely to exceed 21 million