Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that incentives amounting to Rs 9,721 crore have been claimed under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for nine sectors, including electronics manufacturing and pharmaceuticals. Actual investments totaling Rs 1.23 lakh crore have been realized by March 2024, resulting in incremental production or sales of over Rs 10.31 lakh crore and the creation of approximately 8 lakh jobs.
In a written reply, Goyal detailed that the incentives were claimed for sectors such as large-scale electronics manufacturing, IT hardware, bulk drugs, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, telecom and networking products, food processing, white goods, and drones and drone components.
The PLI schemes aim to attract both domestic and foreign investments in key sectors and advanced technologies, ensure efficiency, and bring economies of size and scale to the manufacturing sector, making Indian companies globally competitive. Goyal noted that there is increasing foreign investment in several PLI sectors, highlighting Apple’s shift of its suppliers, including Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron, to India.
He added that most projects are in the implementation stage and will be filing incentive claims in due course. To further enhance the performance and sentiment of applicants, the government plans to settle PLI claims quarterly, which is expected to improve cash flow, accelerate the disbursement of incentives, and enhance fund utilization efficiency.
Additionally, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jitin Prasada informed the Parliament that India has granted Geographical Indications (GI) tags to 643 products as of July 24 this year. A GI tag, valid for 10 years and renewable thereafter, prevents any person or company from selling a similar item under the registered name. This tag assures quality and distinctiveness attributable to the product’s place of origin.
Prasada also mentioned that the Indian Patent Office granted 1,03,057 patents in the 2023-24 period.