Telecom and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday launched three incentive schemes with a total outlay of about ₹48,000 crore to boost large-scale manufacturing of electronics in the country.
Approved in March
The three schemes — Production Linked Incentive (outlay of nearly ₹41,000 crore), Component Manufacturing Scheme (about ₹3,300 crore) and Modified Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (about ₹3,800 crore) — were approved by the Union Cabinet in March this year, however, the government began inviting the applications under these schemes Tuesday onwards.
Under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI), which is targeted at mobile phone manufacturing and specified electronic components, the government initially plans to incentivise 10 firms — five global and five local.
“Globally 5-6 companies control 80% of the mobile market. We initially plan to pick up five global champions who will be permitted to participate under PLI. We also want to make national champions, so we will incentivise five Indian companies as well,” Mr. Prasad said.
He, however, clarified that these firms will be selected as per the guidelines of the scheme. “There are norms in the guidelines, such as the company’s turnover, the quality and rate of their mobiles, etc. There is a proper transparent system in place... the selection norms will be followed,” the Minister said.
‘Modest success’
Stating that India had been able to achieve “modest success” in electronics manufacturing, Mr. Prasad said that India had emerged as the second largest mobile manufacturer of the world.
“In 2014-15, the value of mobiles produced was ₹18,992 crore with six crore units. This increased to ₹1.7 lakh crore in value and 30 crore in terms of units in 2018-19,” he said.
With the three new schemes, the government aims to manufacture electronics worth ₹8 lakh crore, while generating employment for about 10 lakh people in the next five years, as per a presentation made by IT Secretary Ajay Sawhney.
“This is a step towards self-reliant India. A self-reliant India is not an India of isolation. It is not an inward looking India. It is one which enhances its capacity and develops an ecosystem as an asset to the global economy... Make in India is only for India...a self reliant, resurgent and robust India. It is not against any country,” Mr. Prasad said.
Published - June 02, 2020 10:34 pm IST
