IT hardware PLI 2.0 gets interest from global, Indian players: Meity secy

“About 58 registrations have taken place. The response has been good. Most global and Indian players have registered,” he said on the sidelines of an event on Monday.

The scheme aims to boost manufacturing of laptops, tablets, personal computers, servers and edge computing devices in the country.

The government, however, has no plans of extending the month-end deadline for applications, Sharma said, noting that interested players have another couple of days to submit the documents, the next step after registrations. The ministry will begin scrutiny of the applications after the deadline ends.

The deadline was extended twice before.

A senior government official had told Mint earlier that Hewlett-Packard had applied under the PLI scheme. According to a source aware of the development, Dell is also learnt to have applied under the scheme, and other global players are also likely to follow suit. 

Queries to Dell India did not elicit a response as of Monday evening.

The Indian government had in May approved the six-year PLI scheme for IT hardware products with an outlay of ₹17,000 crore, hoping to attract top hardware companies such as HP, Dell and Apple to the country. 

An earlier version of the scheme, rolled out in 2021 with an outlay of about ₹8,000 crore, saw a lukewarm response with most global players staying away.

As per the IT hardware PLI 2.0 scheme, an incentive of 5% will be provided by the government on net incremental sales over the base year, of goods manufactured in India, compared to 2% earlier. The base year is FY23. 

The scheme also provides for flexibility as the investments can be done over six years, instead of four years earlier. Companies opting for the scheme will get additional optional incentive– another 3%–if they use India-made and designed components, sub-system or inputs. 

Also, companies can take Indian contract manufacturers on board, and avail incentives if the contractors are producing for a single company. 

Investments from Chinese manufacturers would also be allowed in accordance with existing regulations.

The government is expecting that the revised scheme will encourage global players to shift their production capacities to India, leading to a likely incremental production worth ₹3.35 trillion and incremental investment of ₹2,430 crore, generating direct employment of 75,000. 

The scheme is also an attempt to foster domestic manufacturing of IT hardware products such as laptops and tablets, a significant portion of which is currently being imported for consumption.

Local electronics manufacturing players such as Dixon Technologies and Optiemus Electronics are widely expected to participate in the scheme as well. They can either apply for the scheme themselves or can produce for an IT hardware brand under partnership and avail benefits.

Electronics manufacturing in India has witnessed consistent growth of 17% CAGR in the last eight years, Sharma said, noting that in FY23, it crossed production of $105 billion.

Updated: 28 Aug 2023, 07:06 PM IST