- Two companies—one domestic & one global—were approved by the committee to receive production-linked incentives for mobile manufacturing
- The govt expects electronics manufacturing to reach $300 bn by 2025-26
In the latest development in the field of Indian electronics manufacturing, the Empowered Committee headed by the CEO of NITI Aayog, Mr Parameswaran Iyer, approved incentives for two companies—one a domestic company and the other a global company—for mobile manufacturing under the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the Large-Scale Electronics Manufacturing (LSEM) sector.
The official communication stated that M/s Foxconn Hon Hai Technology India Mega Development Pvt. Ltd became the first global company to be approved under the target segment ‘Mobile Phones’ (Category: Invoice Value Rs 15,000 and Above) to receive an incentive under mobile manufacturing for the period 1 August 2021–31 March 2022 based on its incremental investments and sales figures. The incentive amount approved for this company is Rs 357.17 crore.
Coming back home, M/s Padget Electronics Pvt. Ltd has also been approved by the Empowered Committee to receive an incentive under mobile manufacturing for the quarter of January–March 2022 based on its incremental investments and sales figures under the target segment ‘Mobile Phones’ (Category-Domestic Companies). The incentive amount approved for this domestic company is Rs 58.29 crore.
PLI For LSEM
It is noteworthy that the proposals for the disbursement of incentives were presented by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY). These proposals were further considered by the NITI-Aayog-CEO-chaired Empowered Committee, which comprised DPIIT Secretary Anurag Jain and MeitY Secretary Alkesh Kumar Sharma, among other members.
MeitY-led PLI scheme for LSEM is aimed towards making India a competitive destination for electronics manufacturing and providing a boost to Atmanirbhar Bharat while creating more global champions in this sector. As of September 2022, it has attracted an investment of Rs 4,784 crore and led to a total production of Rs 2,03,952 crore, out of which, production worth Rs 80,769 crore was exported.
Mobile Phone Production
The government data says that the production of mobile phones has risen from about 6 crores in 2014-15 to around 31 crores in 2021-22, with a sharp rise in exports. “India exported Rs 45,000 crore worth of mobile phones in FY 2021-22 and during the current year up to November 2022, mobile phone exports have already crossed Rs 40,000 crore, which is more than double the exports made during the same period last year,” noted the official release. The government expects electronics manufacturing to rise to $300 bn by 2025-26.
As per recent reports, PLI for the LSEM sector has attracted leading global players, including Foxconn, Samsung, Pegatron, Rising Star and Wistron to manufacture at scale in India. At the same time, major domestic companies like Lava, Micromax, Optiemus, United Telelinks Neolyncs and Padget Electronics, have also participated in this scheme.
Foxconn Hon Hai Technology India Mega Development Private Limited (or Foxconn India) is a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer. It is a part of the Foxconn Group, which is touted as the world’s No. 1 manufacturer/assembler of mobile phones. Foxconn India is headquartered in Tucheng, New Taipei City.
With its manufacturing facilities in Noida, Padget Electronics Pvt. Ltd is a subsidiary of Dixon Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Padget had already received Rs 53.28 crore under the PLI scheme for Large-Scale Electronics Manufacturing for the period August–December 2021 based on its incremental investments and sales figures.
