India might consider extending invitations to additional companies to participate in the incentive scheme aimed at manufacturing telecom and networking products due to the surplus budget available from the scheme as India is looking to build itself as an export powerhouse for telecom products.
The Economic Times, citing unnamed Indian officials, reported that India is contemplating launching an updated edition of the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) for telecom and networking products as there is an excess budget of more than INR15 billion (US$180 million) remaining and fewer than half of the 42 companies meeting their FY23 targets. The unnamed officials cited by the report said the revamped scheme is anticipated to extend eligibility for incentives to additional telecom networking products.
Besides, sources told The Economic Times that 20 companies, including Nokia, Jabil, Sanmina, HFCL, VVDN, Coral, and Tejas Networks, have achieved their targets for fiscal 2023 (April 2022 to March 2023). India is anticipated to offer incentives amounting to around INR4 billion to these companies for meeting their sales objectives.
In October, Ashwini Vaishnaw, India's telecom minister, announced during a virtual inauguration of a production line to make 4G and 4G connective modules and data cards at VVDN Technologies that telecom companies have made an investment of INR24.19 billion in India through the PLI scheme, leading to sales worth of INR345.16 billion, exports of INR76 billion, and an employment of 17,753, reports PTI.
India introduced the INR121.95 billion PLI scheme for telecom and networking products in February 2021 and launched another round in June 2022, including a design-led scheme.
