Global biggies show interest in India's PLI scheme

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has announced that global vendors including Ericsson, Nokia, Ciena, Cisco, Samsung and Foxconn have applied under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme to expand their manufacturing base in India.

Nokia and Ericsson already have manufacturing units in India, while Samsung has a massive mobile devices unit. PLI will essentially help them ramp up production here, not just for the Indian market but also for export.

Sterlite Technologies, VVDN Technologies, Dixon Technologies, Coral and HFCL are some of the domestic firms interested in the scheme.

Figure 1: Giants in the room: The world's biggest vendors want to get a piece of India's pie.
(Source: Unsplash)

Dixon has recently tied up with Bharti Enterprises to manufacture set-top boxes, modems, routers and IoT devices. The DoT is anticipating interest from more domestic and international firms.

The Indian government is in the process of issuing guidelines for the PLI scheme for telecom gear manufacturing. The DoT is likely to offer incentives depending on the quantum of investment, according to media reports.

With a financial outlay of INR121.95 billion (US$1.6 billion), over five years, the scheme is likely to encourage the production of gear worth INR2440 billion ($32.45 billion) and create direct and indirect employment for about 40,000 people.

Making plans

PLI is just one of the schemes launched by the Indian administration to promote the country as a manufacturing hub.

Apart from the flagship Make in India, the government is also offering cash incentives of as much as $1 billion to semiconductor firms to start manufacturing here, according to media reports.

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These schemes are in line with India's Atmanirbhar (self-reliant India) strategy and are designed to help India bring down its dependence on foreign, especially Chinese, telecom gear.

The country is not the only one to focus on the domestic market. China's Dual Circulation strategy also seeks to spur innovation to lessen dependence on the US for high-technology items.

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— Gagandeep Kaur, contributing editor, special to Light Reading