Inclusion of design-led mfg can easily attract USD 3bn invt

“With India set to go 5G in a few months, inclusion of design-led manufacturing can double the impact of the telecom PLI scheme and help the government easily attract around $3 billion of investments from global and domestic manufacturers in the next 3-5 years,” says Rohan Dhamija, head (India & Middle East) at Analysys Mason.

The DoT notified the PLI scheme for telecom and networking products on February 24, 2021, with a financial outlay of Rs 12,195 crore, over five years. In October, it approved 31 proposals entailing an investment of Rs 3,345 crore over the next four and a half years. The shortlisted entities included the likes of Nokia India, HFCL, Dixon Technologies, Flextronics, Foxconn, Coral Telecom, VVDN Technologies, Akashastha Technologies, and GS India.

According to the government’s dashboard, so far, Rs 451 crore has been invested in the scheme, led primarily by global companies who account for more than Rs 240 crore of the total investment. Additionally, the scheme has generated over 5,000 employment opportunities and sales worth more than Rs 9,000 crore have taken place under the scheme.

The design-led manufacturing scheme is open for both medium and small-scale enterprises (MSMEs) and non-MSMEs, including domestic and global companies. The DoT also said applications for design-led manufacturing will be prioritised over other manufacturers. The scheme requires an investment threshold of Rs 10 crores for MSMEs and Rs 100 crores for non-MSMEs, excluding land and building cost.

The incentives will be based on incremental sales of the manufactured goods, and range between 4 per cent to 7 per cent for different categories over the years. MSMEs will get an additional 1 per cent incentive in the first, second, and third years. The DoT has also approved eleven new telecom and network products to the existing list of products that can be manufactured under the scheme.

CT Bureau