Govt gets 32 proposals from likes of Dell, Foxconn, Lenovo, Asus for Rs 17,000 crore IT hardware incentive scheme: Ashwini Vaishnaw

Ashwini Vaishnaw

The government has received 32 applications from companies such as Dell, Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Foxconn and Netware for the Rs 17,000 crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for IT hardware, which includes laptops, tablets, and servers.

"We are likely to see expected incremental production of Rs 3,35,000 crore. Expected investment incrementally will be Rs 2,430 crore. The expected direct employment is going to be 75,000," said Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

“Dixon will have one plant in Noida where there will be more than 20,000 people working... We had an outlay of Rs 17,000 crore for PLI 2.0 but got proposals of more than this number... It shows people consider India as a trusted, high talent partner," he added.

While Apple has not yet submitted an application for the laptop and tablet production incentive scheme, the company is expected to start making such computing devices in India in the future.

The application window for the PLI 2.0 scheme closes at midnight today.

The new scheme seeks to promote local manufacturing of smaller components in computing devices by introducing additional incentives of up to 3 percent for companies that procure domestically produced components such as memory chips, printed circuit board assemblies, solid-state drives, chassis, power supply components, and adaptors.

It has also introduced a rider on the data protection front as it has mandated that beneficiaries are required to use firmware for servers from Indian sources or other trusted foreign sources as certified by MeitY. Firmware are software programmes embedded in computing devices to help them operate effectively.

The government aims to triple India's electronics manufacturing industry from the current $105 billion to over $300 billion with the PLI 2.0 scheme. This growth is expected to eliminate the need for subsidies in the electronics sector, and the industry could eventually reach a trillion dollars, rivalling China's electronics manufacturing sector.

In May, the Cabinet had approved a renewed PLI scheme for IT hardware worth Rs 17,000 crore with a six-year tenure, aimed at boosting the domestic manufacturing of laptops, tablets, all-in-one PCs, servers, and ultra-small form factor devices.