Dell, Acer, Asus among 32 companies to apply for Rs 17,000 cr IT hardware PLI scheme

This scheme covers a range of products such as laptops, tablets, and servers, and is designed to promote domestic production and enhance the technology manufacturing ecosystem in the country.

"We are likely to see expected incremental production of Rs 3,35,000 crore. Expected investment incrementally will be Rs 2,430 crore. The expected direct employment is going to be 75,000," said Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

“Dixon will have one plant in Noida where there will be more than 20,000 people working... We had an outlay of Rs 17,000 crore for PLI 2.0 but got proposals of more than this number... It shows people consider India as a trusted, high-talent partner," he added.

Although Apple has not currently submitted an application for the laptop and tablet production incentive scheme, it is anticipated that the company will initiate manufacturing of these computing devices in India in the upcoming period.

The application window for the PLI 2.0 scheme is set to close at midnight today.

The newly introduced scheme is designed to incentivize local manufacturing of smaller components within computing devices by offering additional incentives of up to 3 percent to companies that procure domestically produced components, including memory chips, printed circuit board assemblies, solid-state drives, chassis, power supply components, and adaptors.

Furthermore, the scheme includes a provision related to data protection, stipulating that beneficiaries must use firmware for servers from Indian sources or other reputable foreign sources as certified by MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology).

Firmware, which are software programs embedded in computing devices to ensure their efficient operation, must meet these requirements.

With the PLI 2.0 scheme, the government aims to substantially grow India's electronics manufacturing industry from its current value of $105 billion to more than $300 billion.

This ambitious growth trajectory is anticipated to render subsidies in the electronics sector unnecessary, and the industry could potentially achieve a value of one trillion dollars, making it a formidable rival to China's electronics manufacturing sector.

In May, the Cabinet sanctioned the implementation of a revamped Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for IT hardware, valued at Rs 17,000 crore, with a duration of six years.

The primary objective of this initiative is to stimulate domestic manufacturing within the realms of laptops, tablets, all-in-one PCs, servers, and ultra-small form factor devices.