India to launch Rs 12,000 crore PLI scheme for high-end IT, mobile components

The central government is planning to launch a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to promote domestic production of high-end smartphone components and other IT hardware in India.

The scheme, under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), is expected to be worth around Rs 10,000 – 12,000 crore. Such a scheme will help develop a complete ecosystem of electronics manufacturing in India, officials told the Economic Times.

Further, such an ecosystem will help attract global tech giants such as Apple to the country. The PLI scheme will also enable tech companies based in Asian hubs such as Japan, Taiwan and Korea to migrate their manufacturing units towards India.

Previously, India had launched the Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS) in April 2020 to promote the manufacturing of high-value-added electronic items such as touch panels and camera modules. Notably, SPECS comes to an end in March 2023 and the new PLI is expected to launch by then.

The scheme may offer incentives on 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.

The financial outlay of SPECS was around Rs 3,285 crore and it has led to investments worth Rs 12,000 crore so far, as per reports. Outlook India