PLI scheme helped in bringing investments to India and building manufacturing capabilities: FM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday termed the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme as a game changer and said that it has helped in drawing huge investment to the country while also building manufacturing capabilities.

The scheme was announced in the Union Budget of 2021-22 with an outlay of Rs 1.97 lakh crore and covers 13 champion sectors like textile, steel, telecom, automobiles and pharmaceuticals.

Introduced as part of the global reset post pandemic, the minister said that India planned for schemes that can attract investors who were planning to move out of certain domains for other countries to keep their value chain intact without having to depend on one source.

“These schemes have had very positive outcomes,” she said. “The PLI scheme identified 13 champion sectors. Huge incentives have been announced as a result of which investments are happening in those sectors in a very big way.”

The minister said this while delivering the M V Kamath Centenary Memorial Lecture.

According to her, the PLI’s very nature benefits those with scale and helps both the domestic market and shipping the surplus to the global market, boosting both manufacturing and exports.

“So the PLI scheme has been a game changer in drawing industries coming out of certain geographical territories to countries like India and being a part of the domestic and also the export market,” she said.