New Delhi: In a major boost to domestic manufacturing of air-conditioners, AC components and LED lights in the country, 19 companies have applied for the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme in the second round of applications. While these companies have committed an investment of over Rs 1500 crores, production of these products in the country is expected to increase by nearly Rs 27,000 crores over the next five years as the indigenous component would go up from 15-20 per cent at present to 75-80 per cent in near future.
According to officials, these companies include 8 companies for AC components and 11 companies for LED Lights and they are expected to add another 5,500 people to the workforce through direct employment. These companies include some of the biggest domestic and international brands such as LG Electronics, Mitsubishi Electric, Adani Copper Tubes, Jindal Poly films, Crompton Greaves, Wipro, Zeco Aircon, Starion India and Swaminathan Enterprises as they have applied for manufacturing AC components and LED Lights.
What companies will manufacture in India?
The PLI scheme is aimed at boosting the production of that equipment and components that are not currently produced in India at insufficient capacity. For instance, air conditioners companies will manufacture copper tubing, compressors, control assemblies for indoor and outdoor units, heat exchangers and BLDC motors among other components.
Similarly, LED Lights, LED chip packaging, LED drivers, LED engines, LED Light Management Systems and Metallized films for capacitors will be manufactured in India. At present these components are mostly imported from China, Taiwan, and other East Asian countries such as Thailand and Vietnam among others. Altogether, the scheme will bring investment in the component manufacturing eco-system of ACs and LED Lights industry to the tune of Rs 7,074 crore and generate around 2 lakh direct and indirect jobs in the manufacturing sector. The PLI Scheme for White Goods sector which includes fridges, washing machines, air conditioners and household items is expected to increase the total production of components of ACs and LEDs in India by over Rs 1.07 lakh crore.
What is the PLI Scheme?
In November 2020, a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for the 10 key sectors with a total outlay of Rs 1,45,980 crore for improving the country’s manufacturing capabilities and with the aim of boosting exports as well. These 10 sectors are in addition to the 3 sectors for which PLI schemes have been approved by the government in April 2020 for mobile manufacturing and specified electronic components, critical key drug intermediaries and APIs, and manufacturing of medical devices.
