New Delhi: The Government has invited fresh applications under its Rs 2,700-crore Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for medical devices and extended the programme till 2035-36, an official release said on Tuesday.
The scheme guidelines have also been simplified and made more investor-friendly to promote ease of doing business.
Under the revised guidelines, the government has eliminated the minimum sales threshold for claiming financial incentives while scaling down the baseline capital expenditure required from manufacturers, the Department of Pharmaceuticals, under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, said in the release.
Applications can be submitted through an online portal, which will become operational in the next 10 days.
Launched in 2020-21, the PLI Scheme for Promoting Domestic Manufacturing of Medical Devices (PLI-MD) has so far led to the domestic manufacturing of over 60 high-end medical devices and components, resulting in production valued at more than Rs 16,000 crore.
These include CT scanners, 1.5T MRI, LINAC, mammography machines, Cathlabs, X-ray tubes and detectors, orthopaedic and cardiac implants, and dialysers.
Based on learnings from the initial phase, eligibility conditions and procedures for claiming incentives have been eased.
Applicants will be given three years to set up manufacturing facilities across four target segments.
The segments cover medical consumables, disposables, and implants; critical components; high-end medical devices at a nascent stage of domestic manufacturing; and high-end medical devices presently only assembled in the country, as per the release.
The emphasis on critical component manufacturing is aimed at achieving value chain integration and boosting the MSME sector.
The release stated that PLI-MD 2.0 aims to fulfil the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India, develop indigenous supply chains, attract investment, generate employment, reduce device prices, and enhance global competitiveness.
The initiative also seeks to promote deep manufacturing and encourage domestic production of high-end equipment currently not manufactured in India, such as 3T MRI, PET-CT, ultrasound probes and consoles, and high-throughput IVD analysers, it added.
(PSU Watch is India's Business News centre that places the spotlight on PSUs, Bureaucracy, Defence and Public Policy. 👉 Click to join our channel now: PSUWatch WhatsApp Channel. Prefer LinkedIn? Follow PSU Watch on LinkedIN. Click to stay connected on Twitter here and stay updated.)