The production linked incentive (PLI) schemes of the government have been successful in desired outcomes such as localisation of medical technologies, bulk drugs, electronics, and specialty steel among others, top government officials said Saturday. Addressing a session during 96th Annual Convention of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), IT secretary, S Krishnan also said that the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) rules will be ready in a few weeks.
“The DPDP Act balances the need for regulation, and personal data being secure against the need for innovation. We’ve managed to hit the sweet spot where everyone seems to find it broadly acceptable. The rules will come out in a few weeks and that should top off a good year on the regulation side,” Krishnan said.
Highlighting the need for more localisation of electronic goods in the country, Krishnan said that no one country has more than 40-45% of the value chain in this sector, including China. “Currently our value chain is about 10-15% of the total value addition. We are still at the assembly line stage and most of the inputs get imported…If we have to be truly competitive once the PLI goes, then you need to be looking at least 30-35% of the value chain including components being made in India, that is critical.”
Pointing out that the PLI for Food Processing are on track, Anita Praveen, Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries said that more than 2 lakh jobs have been added to the 80 lakh existing ones in this sector. “We are completing our investment target by March 2024 under the PLI,” she said while adding that the Food Processing Ministry is now to push for smaller units that will likely generate the largest growth for the sector.
Arunish Chawla, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers also noted the success of PLI programmes. “The formulation scheme is doing so well that all targets are being exceeded by 100%.”
Chawla said that bulk drugs manufacturing was the biggest challenge under PLI by there has been much progress. “We are happy to announce that production has already started in 33 bulk drugs. Last year, our imports in bulk drugs became equal to exports. This has happened for the first time in our industry and is a very big milestone.”
He also noted that 136 products have been taken up for manufacturing under the PLI for medical devices. This is deviation from the earlier position where the country was 90% import dependent. “Global majors like Siemens and GE are now beginning to produce high tech equipment such as those for imaging and cancer therapy within our country,” he added.
Also speaking during the session, Bhupinder Singh Bhalla, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said incentives for green hydrogen manufacturing will soon be awarded. “Green hydrogen will shortly start flowing in the pipeline…We have got commitments for having 5.8 million metric tonnes (MMT) of green hydrogen against expectations of 5 MMT.”
“There is a lot of interest from foreign investors…We estimate that Rs 27 lakh crore of investment will be needed for the RE capacity addition. Around 70% of this will be debt, much of which will have to come from within India,” he added.
