The government of India has recently approved 16 companies under different PLI schemes for manufacturing smartphones. The schemes were announced earlier this year
The likes of Wistron, Foxconn and Pegatron might miss on the PLI targets for manufacturing smartphones in India. Various reports doing the rounds of media houses claim that these companies have written to Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeiTy) through industry body ICEA.
Reports claim that these companies have cited shortage of chips in the global market as the primary reason behind there fear of not being able to meet targets in time. It is to be noted here that the companies pointed towards Huawei buyng stocks in bulk as the reason behind this shortage.
“The PLI applicants are working very furiously and with everything possible at their command to fulfil the targets. Many of them will be able to complete it but not before early financial year (FY) 2021-22, and a handful will even be able to complete by March 2021. However, they are skating on thin ice because there could be many slips in these extraordinary circumstances,” Pankaj Mohindroo, ICEA Chairman, wrote in a letter to MeiTy.
Mohindroo, in the letter also noted that several vendors had cut supplies to Indian companies in 97 per cent of the cases. Samsung, might be the only company to meet its PLI targets.
Under mobile phone (Domestic Companies) segment, Indian companies including Lava, Bhagwati (Micromax), Padget Electronics, UTL Neolyncs and Optiemus Electronics were approved by MeitY.
The international mobile phone manufacturing companies that are approved under mobile phone (Invoice Value Rs 15,000 and above) segment are Samsung, Foxconn Hon Hai, Rising Star, Wistron and Pegatron. Out of these, three companies namely Foxconn Hon Hai, Wistron and Pegatron are contract manufacturers for Apple iPhones.
Six companies approved under the Specified Electronic Components Segment include AT&S, Ascent Circuits, Visicon, Walsin, Sahasra, and Neolync.