India loosening its planned restrictions on laptop, tablet imports

India is loosening its planned restrictions on imports of laptops, tablets and other IT hardware, giving manufacturers such as Apple Inc., HP Inc. and Dell Technologies Inc. more time to prepare for potential curbs.

The South Asian country is doing away with a compulsory licensing requirement for tech importers, and will instead only ask such companies to register under its so-called import management system, people familiar with the policy said. The system will start operating on Nov. 1, they said, asking not to be named as the matter isn’t public.