The MeitY plans to come up with the scheme by April 2024, as reported.
The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) is planning to launch a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, worth ₹10,000 crore to ₹12,000 crore, to promote domestic manufacturing of high-end components for smartphones and other IT hardware.
The incentive scheme aims to build a complete ecosystem of electronics manufacturing in India, to attract global tech giants such as Apple to intensify local production, as reported by The Economic Times.
Two weeks ago, the Indian Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) petitioned the government to increase the expenditure for the Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS) to at least ₹10,000 crores for five years, from the current outlay of ₹3,000 crores for three years, in the Union Budget for 2023–24.
SPECS was launched in April 2020 to promote the manufacturing of high-value-added electronic items such as touch panels and camera modules. The scheme will end in March 2023 and the new PLI scheme is expected to launch by then.
Minister of electronics and information technology (MeitY), Ashwini Vaishnav, had earlier informed the Lok Sabha that the government has approved 32 applications with a total project expenditure of ₹11,130 crore and committed incentives of ₹1,519 crores, under SPECS. He mentioned that the employment generation potential of the approved applications stood at 32,457.
Officials who were aware of the matter told ET that the new scheme might offer incentives for the production of components as well as capital support for setting up production facilities. “The final contours of the scheme are still to be finalised, but we are aiming to come out (with the policy) by next financial year (April 2024),” they told ET.
