Need help | Regarding US airport | Airport Authorities

Since your friend is coming to India FROM the US, the problems he might face comes in the customs in India. In the US he might get more attention than he deserves due to racial profiling if he looks a certain way, but unless he unpacks the microphone and wraps it in dynamite and wire they aren't going to have a problem seeing that it's a microphone. General rules of talking to authorities apply - smile, be friendly, thankful, polite, calm, and compliant. Keep any documentation on the purchase with the microphone so they can see it if they open the bag to see what it was they saw on the x-ray. Unless he packs in the checked luggage in which case theft is the main concern.

When coming into India on the other hand they can get a bit tetchy if you have a lot of laptops, tablets and phones. They usually don't know what other electronics are worth though so they don't care about that. Again racial profiling might work against him but most likely the worst case scenario would be that he has to pay duty on some of the devices he brings. Anything that looks like he's going to resell it would be a bit of a red flag here..... but probably less of a red flag than taking it out in the plane and unpacking it on the way over.

So yeah, shouldn't be any problems - but you should probably listen more to your friend than strangers on the internet. If he says he might get problems then he's the one who knows what kinds of problems that may be, and also he's the one who knows if he said that because he doesn't really want to buy it for you but doesn't want to say no. :)

Good luck!

Nobody will make him problems if he keeps it in original box with original receipt as a proof of purchase. Even if your friend would be so unlucky to lose the box and the receipt + meet the absolute worst people in charge that will question him and analyze the mic, they can't just confiscate that without a valid reason, and to the best of my knowledge hardware isn't illegal in India. In the worst case you might need to pay tax related to import, but if that's not your concern (and also unlikely to happen) then I can't believe you'd have any other issues. Maybe he simply doesn't want to go through eventual time wasted on analysis and explanation, and that is actually valid reason - just because he can do something doesn't mean he actually want to, for one reason or another.

People in charge of ensuring safety usually have enough of stuff to do to not create extra work for themselves and bother people. If x-rays do not find anything suspicious such as a freaking ticking bomb with a bunch of dynamite inside your box, then nobody should really waste time digging, it's not like they're paid for making people trouble. I travelled a bit, nothing huge enough to state some general opinion, but I never had any issue with my laptop, phone, headphones and bunch of other stuff I always bring with me - they just x-ray everything that could be a container for something else and that's it.

Also title should be named regarding India airport, because on the US side they will probably just filter out illegal things like bigger liquids and so, and probably only in your handbag anyway. They couldn't care less about your destination and whether the condoms that you've bought in the shop next to the airport are legal in that country or not.

My two cents in the reply to JustArchi above.

Why import it, if it is available in your country? Is there a significant price difference?