New Delhi: The governmentâs push to domestic mobile phone manufacturers in form of incentives under product-linked incentives (PLI) scheme has set a challenge for them to become globally competitive, industry body said.
âThe approval for Indian Companies is a very fair hand dealt and each company has got one approval,â said Pankaj Mohindroo, Chairman, India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA).
âNow the challenge begins i.e can these future Indian champions build core design and brand capabilities and also scale up to become globally competitive or some of them use it tactically and fade out with the PLI incentive. A leap in mindset is required and I am sure once bitten twice shyâthey have learnt their lessons,â he said.
The government, on Tuesday, approved applications of 16 electronics companies including 10 mobile phone manufacturers for reward under the product-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for total disbursement of Rs 40,000 crore, expected to attract investment of Rs 11,000 crore in next five years.
Indian mobile phone makers who have been approved are Lava, Bhagwati (Micromax), Padget Electronics, UTL Neolyncs and Optiemus Electronics who have proposed production output of Rs 1.25 lakh crore over the next five years, the ministry said in a statement.
âOptiemus proudly acknowledges and appreciates GOIâs forward looking and historic contributions made to foster the growth in the mobile handset manufacturing eco-system in India in sync with the flagship âMake in Indiaâ vision,â said Ashok Gupta, Chairman, Optiemus Electronics.
âWe at Optiemus will leave no stone unturned to help transform the mobile manufacturing ecosystem in the country to achieve significant heights as envisaged under the NPE 2019 with our valuable contributions.â
Global mobile phone manufacturers that are approved to avail incentive for producing mobile phones with invoice value Rs 15,000 and above are Samsung, Foxconn units Hon Hai and Rising Star, Wistron and Pegatron.
Six companies are approved under the specified electronic components segment which include AT&S, Ascent Circuits, Visicon, Walsin, Sahasra, and Neolync.
Chairman Mohindroo said that the components PLI is not to the nationâs potential as of now and all of us will have to work extremely hard on building this further.