The applications by global as well as domestic mobile manufacturers, like Foxconn, iPhone contract makers, Pegatron and Wistron as well as Samsung, Karbonn, Lava, and Dixon, have been seeking permission to export mobile phones worth around US$ 100 billion from India, cleared by the empowered committee in September 2020. The application were approved under the production linked incentive scheme (PLI). The empowered committee includes the NITI Aayog CEO along with the Secretaries of Economic Affairs, Expenditure, Revenue, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), and Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). As per government data, a total of 22 companies had applied for the Rs 41,000-crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme.
The PLI scheme aims to make India a manufacturing hub for smartphones and to attract manufacturers looking to move out of China amid Sino-US trade tensions. Pegatron, Apple’s second-largest contract manufacturer, is looking to set up its factory in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh.