Under the flagship scheme, Make In India, the government is working on a Rs. 42,000 crore plan to boost local manufacturing of mobile phones and ramp up production. As China struggles to cope up with the increasing demand due to the corona virus outbreak, the scheme aims at integrating India into the global supply chain.
The production-linked incentive scheme will be a benefit to the domestic makers and the high end mobile manufacturers. It will boost local production and wean away the dependence of Indian manufacturers on China.
The Boost
According to reports, global giants like Apple and Samsung will benefit from the scheme by the ministry of Electronics and Information technology.
The report quoted a source of the IT ministry saying, “The electronics hardware manufacturing sector faces the lack of a level-playing field vis-a-vis competing nations… (and) suffers from a disability of 8.5% to 11% on account of lack of adequate infrastructure, domestic supply chain and logistics, high cost of finance, inadequate availability of quality power, limited design capabilities and focus on R&D by the industry, and inadequacies in skill development.”
The Catch
The companies like Vivo, Oppo will be excluded from the scheme. This scheme will be applicable to mobile devices which are more than $200 value, which excludes a significant amount of players from the scheme.
The report published in The Economic Times, January, a source said, “MeitY is working on a production-linked incentive and there will be certain rigid criteria to avail this incentive. We only want those companies which are going to make India an electronics manufacturing and export hub to be able to use this incentive.”
