The government announced on Wednesday that sales in the manufacturing of telecommunication equipment have crossed Rs 50,000 crore under the PLI scheme, which ensured more than 17,800 direct employment and created a lot of indirect opportunities. PLI for telecom has pulled investments of Rs 3,400 crore within three years of its commencementIt added that the output value of this equipment has crossed Rs 50,000 crore with an export value of about Rs.10,500 crore, the Ministry of Communications said.
Companies that are beneficiaries under the PLI have seen exponential growth in sales of telecom and networking products by 370 percent in FY2023-24 over the base year FY 2019-20. More importantly, the gap between the concerned imports and exports of telecom has also come down, with total exports of telecom equipment and mobiles crossing Rs 1.49 lakh crore, marginally higher than imports of Rs 1.53 lakh crore in FY 23-24, data from the government showed.
It added, "This is a milestone in showcasing vibrant telecom manufacturing sector in India. Government has taken several initiatives to encourage local manufacturing, reduce imports.".
While in 2014-15, most of the mobile phones were imported to India with just 5.8 crores made here against 21 crore imports, in the year 2023-24, domestic production has gone up to 33 crores; imports have fallen drastically to a mere 0.3 crores, with nearly five crores units exported, the latest ministry data show.
From Rs 1,556 crore in 2014-15 and Rs 1,367 crore in 2017-18, the value of exports of mobile phones increased to Rs 1,28,982 crore in 2023-24. On the other hand — mobile phone imports nose-dived from Rs 48,609 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 7,665 crore in 2023-24 — the government reported.
Strong local manufacturing provisions from PLI have contributed to reducing this country's dependence on imported telecommunication equipment, with an import substitution rate of about 60%. Near self-sufficiency has been attained for Antennae, GPON, and CPE.
Government sources said that globally, Indian manufacturers were becoming more competitive and of high quality at good prices.In the last five years, trade deficit in telecom—in both equipment and mobiles combined—had declined drastically from Rs 68,000 crore to Rs 4,000 crore, reflecting the success of PLI schemes in enhancing the global competitiveness of India and making it an attractive destination for investments in state-of-the-art technologies.
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