Centre Pledged to Make in India Electronics Export Hub, Launches New Schemes
As major technology and electronics companies looking India as a sweet-spot for manufacturing, boosting further, India earlier this week launched an Rs. 50,000 crores ($6.65 billion) to boost electronics manufacturing. Ravi Shankar Prasad told in a news conference that it would start from attracting five global smartphone makers friendly incentives to establish or expand domestic production.
The technology minister also noted that the government is offering a production-linked incentive (PLI) involving cash worth 4 percent to 6 percent of additional sales of goods made locally over five years, with 2019-2020 as the base year.
Names of the five companies, which would have to meet investment and sales thresholds to be eligible, were expected to be announced in the next two months, ministry officials said.
Five Indian firms would also be selected for the PLI scheme, which, along with two other related initiatives, could help India produce smartphones and components worth Rs. 10 lakh crores ($133 billion) by 2025, Prasad said.
Boosting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make In India’ initiative, the Government is pledged to make India an export hub for electronics.
Global players such as Samsung and Taiwanese firms Foxconn, and Wistron, which both supply Apple, have already ramped up local production, attracted by the huge market of 1.3 billion people.
The new plan also includes schemes to drive up production of components and create manufacturing clusters with pre-built factory sheds and common facilities for companies to move in immediately.
“We want the bridegrooms to come but we also want the entire wedding procession. A company coming (to India) should also bring the entire procession of its ancillaries,” Prasad said.
The Minister of Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad asserted, “Self-reliant India is not an India of isolation or not an inward-looking country. It is an India that enhances its capacity and develops a strong ecosystem as well as a robust supply chain linked with the global economy.”
