New Delhi: In a major decision aimed at making India self-dependent in telecom manufacturing sector, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme worth Rs 12,195 crore for telecom equipment manufacturing.
While briefing reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet, Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the government is positioning India as a global powerhouse for manufacturing and has created a conducive environment for ease of doing business.
The government expects that the scheme would lead to Rs 2,44,200 crore incremental production of telecom equipment in the country in the next five years, Prasad said, adding that soon the government will come up with a PLI scheme to encourage the production of laptops and tablet PCs.
The PLI scheme, which would be operational from April 1, 2021, is also aimed at addressing local manufacturing in MSME category and it would lead to an incremental production of around Rs 2.4 lakh crore with exports of around Rs 2 lakh crore over 5 years.
The government is aiming that scheme would bring an investment of more than Rs 3,000 crore and generate huge direct and indirect employment and taxes both.
The approval has come in the wake of the very encouraging success of PLI related to mobile and component manufacturing, which was announced in April 2020 when Covid pandemic was at its peak.
According to an official statement of the Telecom Ministry, the scheme was finalised after the widespread consultation with stakeholders like manufacturers, industry leaders and associations.
"The core component of this scheme is to offset the huge import of telecom equipment worth more than Rs 50,000 crore and reinforce it with "Made in India" products both for domestic markets and exports," it said.
Globally telecom and networking products exports represent a US dollar 100 billion market opportunity, which can be exploited by India.
With the support of PLI scheme, the country would augment capacities by attracting large investments from global players and at the same time encourage promising domestic champion companies to seize emerging opportunities and become big players in the export market, it said.