In a big boost for the telecom gear manufacturing ecosystem in India, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is set to issue the guidelines of the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme which has already been approved by the Union Cabinet, reports Economic Times.

The DoT is said to be ready with guidelines for implementation, application format, incentive allocation et cetera and the details are likely to be published on its website within a week. Thereafter, it will start inviting applications for the same.

The scheme has a financial outlay of Rs 12,195 crore over five years and is likely to encourage the production of equipment worth Rs 2.44 lakh crore and create direct and indirect employment for about 40,000 people. The scheme is estimated to bring in an investment of Rs 3,000 crore and generate tax revenues of about Rs 17,000 crore.

It should be noted that a host of telecom gear makers and global technology behemoths like Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung, Cisco, Ciena, and Foxconn are keen to expand operations in India and have shown interest in setting up manufacturing facilities in the nation to serve both, domestic and international demand for telecom and networking products.

Through the scheme, selected companies would be able to 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.