The government’s flagship Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme has attracted cumulative investments of ₹5.04 lakh crore across 14 sectors since its launch in 2021, creating 1.2 million direct jobs and contributing $145 billion to India’s manufacturing output, according to an official report released by the Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday.
The scheme, which offers incentive payouts of 4-20% on incremental production beyond a baseline, has been particularly transformative in electronics, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, and food processing. Electronics manufacturing alone attracted ₹1.8 lakh crore in investments, with Apple, Samsung, and Dixon Technologies collectively producing $70 billion worth of devices in India annually.
The smartphone exports story is among the most dramatic: India exported $25 billion in mobile phones in FY26, up from just $100 million in FY18. The country is now the world’s second-largest smartphone manufacturer by volume, having overtaken Vietnam. Apple alone assembled 14 million iPhones in India in the last calendar year.
In pharmaceuticals, PLI investments are enabling India to reduce API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) import dependence from China by 40%, with 10 new API parks operational across Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Gujarat.
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said the scheme has ‘fundamentally altered the DNA of Indian manufacturing,’ and announced an extension of PLI to three new sectors—defence electronics, specialty chemicals, and technical textiles—with an additional outlay of ₹35,000 crore.
Global supply chain diversification trends, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and US-China decoupling, continue to work in India’s favour, with major multinationals identifying India as their primary ‘China+1’ production hub.
