New Delhi: The Indian government said that European telecom gear vendors like
Ericsson and Nokia are keen to expand their existing operation in India for global supply chain under under the Rs 12,195-crore production linked incentive (PLI) scheme of the government, which was notified in February.
Other global vendors lik
e Samsung , Cisco, Ciena, and Engineering Manufacturing Services (EMS) companies like Jabil, Foxconn, Sanmina and Flex have shown interest to set up manufacturing in India for telecom and networking products for domestic as well as export markets under the newly announced PLI scheme, the government said in an official release.
Indian manufacturers like VVDN Technologies, Dixon, HFCL, Coral Telecom and Sterlite Technologies have also shown interest in the scheme.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) was expected to release final guidelines for the scheme by March 31 and operationalise them by April 1. However, the DoT is expecting more applications and has therefore extended the time frame, said industry executives.
On Wednesday, contract manufacturer Dixon Technologies (India) Ltd and Bharti Enterprises Ltd signed a pact to form a joint venture (JV) to manufacture telecom and networking products such as modems, routers, set top boxes and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The JV will file necessary applications with the communications ministry to avail benefits under the PLI scheme.
The PLI scheme in telecom and networking products aims to make India a global hub of manufacturing telecom equipment, including core transmission equipment, 4G/5G next generation Radio Access Network and wireless equipment, access and Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), Internet of Things (IoT) access devices, other wireless equipment and enterprise equipment like switches, routers amongst others.
It is estimated that full utilisation of the scheme funds is likely to lead to incremental production of around Rs 2.4 lakh crore with exports of around Rs 2 lakh crore over five years. The scheme is expected to bring in investment of around Rs 3,000 crore and generate huge direct and indirect employment.
The government said that an extensive outreach program with the support of Invest India team for the PLI scheme is being planned, covering - One to one meeting with potential investors, participation in global outreach events organized by industry associations and webinars among others.