Four years since their inception, the SPECS and PLI schemes for large-scale electronics have recorded significant incremental investment and production value as MeitY issues update until June 2024.
On Friday, the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Jitin Prasad, updated the Rajya Sabha regarding the status of the SPECS scheme and the PLI scheme for Large Scale Electronics.
According to his written reply, as of June 30, 2024, the Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS) has seen an incremental investment of ₹88.0314 billion. This additional funding has resulted in a production value of ₹180.8355 billion by the same date.
At the same time, the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Large Scale Electronics saw an incremental investment of ₹83.9 billion and production of ₹5.14 trillion until the end of June this year.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) officially recognised this as a milestone scheme’s attempt to boost domestic electronic component manufacturing to stimulate investment and economic growth in these sectors.
The SPECS scheme was announced on April 1, 2020, and applications were accepted until March 31, 2024.
With an initial allocation of ₹32.85 billion to enhance India’s electronic components ecosystem, SPECS sought to attract ₹200 billion in new investments and create around 600,000 jobs.
This scheme offers a 25% financial incentive on capital expenditures for a range of items, including electronic components, e-waste recycling, mechanical parts, micro/nano-electronic components, solar photovoltaic (SPV) polysilicon, SPV wafers and cells, specialised sub-assemblies, and capital goods used in their production.
In 2020, the government allocated ₹40,951 crores under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme to enhance large-scale electronics manufacturing, including mobile phones and electronic components. The scheme provides a 3% to 6% incentive on incremental sales of eligible products made in India within these categories. This incentive is available to qualifying companies for 5 years.
Both schemes align with the National Policy on Electronics 2019’s goal of making India a global hub for Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM), reducing import dependence, and strengthening digital security.
