The Department of Telecom on Thursday approved 31 proposals under the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme, entailing an investment of Rs 3,345 crore over the next four-and-a- half years. “The investment of Rs 3,345 crore in the next 4.5 years is just a beginning. Government is helping you (industry players) as a catalyst," Minister of State for Communications Devusinh Chauhan said. 

The companies selected for the PLI Scheme include Nokia India, HFCL, Dixon Technologies, Flextronics, Foxconn, Coral Telecom, VVDN Technologies, Akashastha Technologies and GS India. 

The DoT had notified the PLI scheme for telecom and networking products on February 24, 2021, with a financial outlay of Rs 12,195 crore over the five years. 

The scheme for telecom gear manufacturing in India is expected to encourage the production of equipment worth Rs 2.44 lakh crore and create direct and indirect employment for about 40,000 people. 

The investors can earn an incentive for incremental sales up to 20 times the committed investment, enabling them to reach global scales and utilise their unused capacity and ramp up production. 

“This is the first scheme among all PLI schemes, which includes MSMEs. Without this, we would have been handicapped,” Coral Telecom Managing Director Rajesh Tuli said.