iPhone maker Wistron turns biggest investor under PLI
- The scheme, which targets production worth ₹10 trillion and jobs totalling 180,000 jobs, has produced electronic items worth about ₹1.67 trillion and nearly 29,000 jobs.
Wistron InfoComm, the Indian unit of one of the world’s largest iPhone contract makers, emerged as the single biggest investor under the government’s production-linked incentives (PLI) scheme for large-scale electronics manufacturing, bringing in ₹1,250 crore.
Wistron was followed by the local units of Samsung and Foxconn, investing ₹900 crore and ₹650 crore, respectively.
In all, the scheme managed to attract a total of ₹4,200 crore in investments, an official aware of the matter said on condition of anonymity. The government launched the scheme in March 2020 to encourage manufacturing and create jobs.
“The government has enabled a procedure to give visas to foreign nationals involved in Indian companies under the scheme to boost investment. Moreover, a monitoring group has been set up to expedite the resolution of issues faced by the industry,” the official cited above said on the condition of anonymity.
The scheme, which targets production worth ₹10 trillion and jobs totalling 180,000 jobs, has produced electronic items worth about ₹1.67 trillion and nearly 29,000 jobs, according to data from the ministry of electronics and IT.
Queries sent to the investors, as well as the ministries of commerce and electronics, remained unanswered till press time.
“The mobile phone PLI is a classic case of deep research and cooperation between industry and all-of-government,” said Pankaj Mohindroo, chairman of the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA). “It also had an inherent advantage of tailwinds of 4-5 years of phased manufacturing programme and the establishment of industry and most of the domestic demand being met by domestic manufacturing. The expansion of manufacturing under PLI is resulting in substantial exports, which is a very profound result,” Mohindroo added.
Against the backdrop of the pandemic-related disruptions and an acute global chip shortage, the Centre extended the tenure of the PLI scheme till FY26, allowing the companies to choose any five consecutive years between FY21 and FY26 to achieve the threshold targets for incremental sales, with FY20 as the base year.
However, experts said investment and production under the scheme could surge further amid the 5G rollout, which is expected to create replacement demand for phones. “Although the country witnessed considerable growth in production, the amount of value addition remained low as almost 80-90% of the components continue to be manufactured outside due to a weak component manufacturing ecosystem,” an ICRA report said.
The report added that the key challenges faced by manufacturers in India include a lack of R&D infrastructure, high capital and logistics costs, muted private sector interest and weak backward linkages.
Experts warned that a fresh lockdown in China could exacerbate the challenges faced by Indian manufacturers due to the component shortage. Besides, higher customs duty on imported components has induced pricing challenges, they said.
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First Published:3 Nov 2022, 11:50 PM IST
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