According to a top government official on Wednesday, India has spent $1.02 billion in incentives to support domestic manufacturing, on top of almost $13 billion in private sector investments made possible by a 2020 initiative.
India's primary industrial strategy, the 1.97-trillion-rupee ($24 billion) production-linked incentive plan (PLI), spans 14 industries, from drones to electrical items.
Important to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitions to position India as a global manufacturing powerhouse, major Indian and international companies including Apple, Foxconn, Samsung Electronics, Hindustan Unilever Ltd., and Reliance Industries have joined the program.
Industry estimates state that it also contributed to the record $15 billion in mobile phone shipments during the fiscal year that concluded on March 31.
The head of India's Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Rajesh Kumar Singh, told Reuters that "the scheme has had a good impact and incentive disbursements have also picked up."
According to the official, India has exported commodities valued between 3 and 3.5 trillion rupees under the PLI program.
As per him, production has "moved faster" in industries like electronics, food processing, and mobile phones, and it has also increased in the manufacturing of white goods and drones.
However, Singh, whose department is in charge of the scheme's execution, said that the textile and specialty steel industries are still lagging behind and that the incentives for them could need to be adjusted. India examines the scheme's uptake on a regular basis. The source stated that there are no "immediate plans" to extend the incentives to other industries.
