Along with a huge positive response, there were 40 proposals until now, which shows a total investment of Rs 5000 Crore
The Central government’s revised IT hardware Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, dubbed PLI 2.0 has so far received various investment proposals out of which Rs 4000 Crore is expected to be approved soon. Under the PLI 2.0 scheme, the ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) has received 40 proposals worth Rs 5000 Crore. The point is all the proposals cannot be approved because the government has a limited budget.
In an exclusive interaction with the ET, Amitesh Kumar Sinha, joint secretary, ministry of electronics and IT has told that earlier, under this scheme, the investment has a target of Rs 2,430 Crore. Along with a huge positive response, there were 40 proposals until now, which shows a total investment of Rs 5000 Crore. For funding all the proposals, the amount required is Rs 23,000 Crore, but the budget is currently allocated at Rs 17,000 Crore.
"So, probably we'll not select everybody. And in case we're not selecting, investments will come slightly lower than Rs 5,000 crore and investments of about ₹4,000 crore may occur," added Sinha. This PLI 2.0 scheme for IT hardware products has a term of six years, which is looking forward to magnetizing renowned hardware manufacturing firms. With a budget of Rs 7,350 Crore, the scheme was first introduced in 2021 and the new version was unleashed in May this year.
Amitesh Kumar Sinha, who is also the CEO of India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) also spoke of semiconductor fab manufacturing investments. Currently, the government has two display production units and three fabrication units proposals. The proposals failed to be approved in the first round because the companies did not abide by the scheme conditions. Now, the companies are also applying with revised proposals. For instance, Foxconn and Vedanta have also canceled their JVs recently, but now their proposals were submitted separately.
When the joint secretary was asked that why the technologically sophisticated firms faced difficulties in submitting applications, he said, “this sector is very difficult, and the companies are very limited whether it is fab or display technology. They must convince those companies to come to India and commercial considerations must be factored in."
