Union CabinetOf India Approves PLI Scheme For Telecom Sector Worth Rs 12,195 Crore

On 17 February 2021,The Union Cabinet of India approved a Rs 12,195-crore Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for domestic manufacturing of telecom and networking products such as switches, routers, radio access network, wireless equipment and other internet of things (IoT) access devices.

“The core component of this scheme is to offset the huge import of telecom equipment worth more than Rs 50,000 crore and reinforce it with ‘Made in India’ products, both for domestic markets and exports,” the telecom ministry said in a release.

With the inclusion of telecom equipment manufacturing now there are total of 13 sectors under this scheme. All the sectors which are included in the PLI scheme are labor oriented which will attract manufactures from global to come and setup their manufacturing unit in India. Sectors under the PLI scheme are also a government plan to attract manufactures to shift their units to India from China.

State governments are now more focused to invite global companies to set up supply chains. The focus is also on job creation through these industries over the next five years.

In November, the PLI scheme was expanded to include 12 more sectors such as automobile and automobile components, pharmaceutical drugs, textile products, food products, high efficiency solar photo-voltaic modules, white goods such as air conditioners and LED bulbs, and steel products. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in her Budget for 2021-22 said the total outlay on PLI schemes in these 13 sectors over the next five years would be Rs 1.97 lakh crore.