The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has begun receiving applications and suggestions from industry players for the capital equipment segment under the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) — the only category where submissions remain open after the September 30 deadline for other segments, joint secretary Sushil Pal said on October 8.
“We have received a response for capital equipment as well. Now, looking at the seriousness of the policy, a lot of capital equipment players have come forward to improve the scheme,” said Pal while addressing a panel at the Indian Mobile Congress.
“It is too early to amend the scheme at this stage, but this will definitely evolve.”
The ECMS, launched earier this year, offers fiscal incentives linked to turnover and capital expenditure to boost domestic manufacturing of components, sub-assemblies and capital equipment.
The ministry launched an official ECMS portal alongside the guidelines to streamline applications and progress tracking.
“This scheme is not just for products that MeitY handles — it is cross-sectional. It covers telecom, optical transceivers, electro-mechanical components, and a lot more. The scale is the name of the game. If you give them the scale, it has to be manufactured not just for the domestic requirement but also the global requirement,” Pal said.
Pal said the government’s broader push is to strengthen India’s position across the entire electronics value chain. “We have to fire on all cylinders. We have PLI for mobiles, telecom, and white goods. Assembly-led manufacturing has created a lot of demand for components,” he said.
“If we have to actually become a product nation, we need to design our own products, design our technologies, and components. If you have control over design, you can dictate everything downwards,” Pal said.
On October 2, Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the component PLI scheme has attracted investment proposals worth Rs 1.15 lakh crore surpassing the scheme's original targets for investment, employment, and production by several folds.
The government had initially set an ambitious investment target of Rs 59,000 crore, but the proposals indicate production estimates exceeding Rs 10 lakh crore.
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