PLI Success: India's Telecom Equipment Manufacturing Sales Cross Rs 50,000 Crore — All About It

India's telecom manufacturing industry has achieved a significant milestone, with the production of telecom equipment surpassing Rs 50,000 crore within three years of the launch of the Telecom Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme.

In a statement on Wednesday, the government said that aligning with PM Modi's vision of making India ‘Atmanirbhar’, the PLI Scheme for Telecom and for Electronic Manufacturing have led to a significant increase in production, employment generation, economic growth, and exports in the country.

"Within three years of the Telecom PLI scheme, the scheme has attracted an investment of Rs 3,400 crore, the telecom equipment production has exceeded the milestone of Rs 50,000 crore with exports totalling approximately Rs 10,500 crore, creating more than 17,800 direct jobs and many more indirect jobs," the Ministry of Communications said in a release on Wednesday (10 July).

The Telecom PLI scheme aims to enhance domestic manufacturing capabilities and make India a global hub for telecom equipment production.

The scheme also offers financial incentives to manufacturers based on their incremental sales from products manufactured in India.

Telecom equipment includes intricate items like radios, routers, and network equipment, among others.

Furthermore, companies are permitted by the government to avail benefits for producing 5G equipments.

Currently, 5G Telecom equipment manufactured in India are being exported to North America and Europe.

The ministry said that as a result of the PLI Scheme for Telecom and Networking Products and other related initiatives run by the government, the gap between telecom imports and exports has reduced significantly with the total value of goods (both telecom equipment and mobiles put together) exported is over Rs 1.49 lakh crore as against imports of over Rs 1.53 lakh crore in FY 23-24.

The PLI Scheme for Large Scale Electronic Manufacturing of Electronics covers the manufacture of mobile phones and its components.  

"As a result of this PLI scheme, both the production and export of mobile phones from India has picked up greatly.  India from being a large importer of mobile phones in 2014-15, when only 5.8 crore units were produced in the country, while 21 crore units were imported, in 2023-24, 33 crore units were produced in India and only 0.3 crore units were imported and close to 5 crore units were exported," the ministry said.

According to the ministry, the value of exports of mobile phones has gone up from Rs 1,556 crore in 2014-15 and just Rs 1,367 crore in 2017-18, to Rs 1,28,982 crore in 2023-24. 

Import of mobile phones was valued a Rs 48,609 crore in 2014-15 and has dropped to just Rs 7,665 crore in 2023-24, the ministry said.

The ministry added that both the PLI schemes both have started to make Indian manufacturers globally competitive, attract investment in the areas of core competency and cutting-edge technology; ensure efficiencies; create economies of scale; enhance exports and make India an integral part of the global value chain.

Further, the scheme has transformed India’s exports basket from traditional commodities to high value-added products, the ministry said.

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