Centre approves ₹19,500 cr PLI for solar PV modules

In a bid to push India’s energy transition toward renewable sources, the union cabinet on Wednesday allocated ₹19,500 crore for domestic manufacture of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules that could lead to savings of ₹1.37 trillion in imports.

The cabinet also cleared the new national logistics policy (NLP), designed to bring logistical efficiency in the economy and reduce the cost of freight movement from the current 13-14% to the global standard of 5-8% of GDP.

The production linked incentive (PLI) scheme will be adequate to meet the domestic demand for solar modules and will also help boost exports, Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi, secretary, ministry of new and renewable energy told reporters. He added that the allotment of ₹19,500 crore is expected to bring in an investment of ₹94,000 crore and give direct employment to 195,000 people and indirect employment to another 700,000. Notably, foreign companies will be allowed to apply for the scheme and approvals will follow foreign direct investment (FDI) norms.

The PLI will help in achieving a manufacturing capacity of “giga watt (GW) scale” in high-efficiency solar PV modules. It will be disbursed over five years post the commissioning of solar PV manufacturing plants.

This is the second tranche of the PLI. The first tranche of ₹4,500 crore was approved last year and the bids were awarded to Reliance Industries Ltd, Adani Group and Sri Shirdi Sai Group.

“The timely announcement of the PLI-II will have huge influence in the upcoming 5th General Assembly of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) projecting India as a strategic partner in the energy transition.

It is an ardent move towards targeted 500 GW installed RE capacity by 2030, ensuring supply-chain resilience and making the MSMEs in the sector competent even in the global market,” said Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

It is estimated that about 65,000 MW per annum manufacturing capacity of fully and partially integrated solar PV modules would be installed.

“The (NLP) policy aims to improve the Logistics Performance Index ranking, to be among top 25 countries by 2030, and create data driven decision support mechanism for an efficient logistics ecosystem,” an official statement read.

Fourteen states have already developed their respective state logistics policies on the lines of the NLP. The institutional frameworks under PM GatiShakti at the Centre and state levels, which will also monitor implementation of the policy, is fully operational.

“The policy also clearly lays down an action agenda for immediate on ground implementation of various initiatives. To ensure that the benefits of this policy have maximum possible outreach, important initiatives under the policy including the Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP), the ease of logistics services platform, e-handbook on warehousing, training courses on PM GatiShakti and logistics on i-Got platform, were launched along with the launch of the National Logistics Policy,” the government said.

To monitor its implementation and integrate efforts across stakeholders, the policy will utilize the existing institutional framework including the Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS) created under PM GatiShakti.

The EGoS will also set up a Services Improvement Group (SIG) on the lines of the Network Planning Group (NPG) for monitoring of parameters pertaining to processes, regulatory and digital improvements in the logistics sector that are not covered under the ToR of the NPG.

Yash Jain , CEO and founder Nimbus Post, said the success of the policy will depend largely on the ability of logistics service providers to adapt to the new environment.

ravi.dutt@livemint.com