The Mobile PLI Scheme

How India's Production Linked Incentive scheme for mobile phones launched in 2020 paid incentives on incremental sales, attracting Apple suppliers and Samsung.

India launched a PLI scheme for mobile phones in 2020.

How it works

Companies get incentives of about 4-6% on incremental sales of phones made in India, above a base year.

Participants

Apple’s suppliers: Foxconn, Wistron (later Tata Electronics) and Pegatron.
Samsung.
Indian firms like Dixon and Lava.

Earlier policy

The Phased Manufacturing Programme (2017) raised duties on imported parts to encourage local assembly.

Results

India’s phone production and exports grew rapidly.

Critique

Much value is in imported components; local value added is still low.

The incentive

A phone assembler earns incentive payments for each additional phone it makes in India above its base year.

Thinking PLI makes phones fully Indian

Many components are still imported.

Key takeaways

The mobile PLI launched in 2020.
It pays 4-6% on incremental sales.
Apple suppliers and Samsung joined.
Local value added remains low.