Union Minister Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar addressed a Digital India Dialogues session in Bengaluru today, focusing on the revised production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for IT hardware.

The session brought together stakeholders from the tech industry, such as experts, industry representativesand startups. The minister actively interacted with them, addressing their queries on improving the ecosystem.

While addressing the session the minister said, “Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri NarendraModi, the Government is working closely with Startups, Industry and Academia to create rapidly expanding server & IT Hardware manufacturing ecosystem in India. Our ambitions are clear — a $300 billion Electronics industry and a $1 trillion Digital Economy by 2026. The government will act as an enabler in catalysing India’s IT hardware ecosystem that includes data centres, servers, etc. This PLI scheme for IT hardware has been carefully designed this time with inputs from the industry. India represents one of the fastest-growing consumer markets in the electronic manufacturing ecosystem as we have digitised our economy, Government and public services at an unprecedented rate.”

The discussions were focused around stimulating ecosystem development while encouraging enterprises and startups to expand their presence in the country.

“While we welcome big foreign companies to set up their base in India, we are also enabling the industry to benefit from incentives and expand the EMS ecosystem in India,” the Minister added.

In May, the Government approved the PLI 2.0 scheme for IT hardware with an outlay of Rs 17,000 crore, doubling the budget from the 2021 scheme. The scheme aims to encourage domestic manufacturing, attract investmentsand promote the localisation of IT hardware components and sub-assemblies. It covers laptops, tablets, all-in-one PCs, servers and ultra-small form factor devices. In doing so, the government aims to catalyse the domestic IT hardware manufacturing ecosystem of India, thereby creating Indian champions in the IT hardware industry.

The scheme is set to run for six years and is projected to generate a significant increase in production worth Rs. 3.35 Lakh crore, with an expected investment of Rs. 2,430 crore. It is also likely to create approximately 75,000 new direct job opportunities.

Since 2014,  the electronics manufacturing industry in India has achieved a consistent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17%. Starting from around Rs. 1 Lakh crore  the production has now surpassed the significant benchmark of 105 billion USD.

Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar also highlighted India’s significant growth in smartphone manufacturing, he said, “We clearly aware of the smartphone success and I can very confidently state that what you’ve seen in the smartphone segment is just the tip of the iceberg. It is clear that we are going to be a significant source of smartphone production and overall ecosystem around the smartphone in the coming decade and the large brands are certainly clear in their mind that they want to make India an expanded presence in India and expand it significantly.”

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RKJ/DK