Very positive industry feedback about various PLI schemes, says Piyush Goyal

New Delhi: Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles Piyush Goyal has said a slew of Production Linked Incentives (PLI) schemes announced by the government in various sectors have induced post-COVID industrial and economic recovery. Chairing a review meeting of the Steering Committee on Advancing Local value-add and Exports (SCALE), Goyal said there has been very positive Industry feedback about the various PLIs announced by the Centre. It may be noted that some of these PLIs in the Textile, Automotive and White Goods sectors are already beginning to encourage more growth.

Out of the global auto component trade of $1.3 trillion, India's share is $15 billion. The government aims to double its exports of auto components to $30 billion by 2026.

Deliberating on ways to enhance competitiveness and leverage the untapped potential of Indian industries to fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat, Goyal asked all stakeholders to have the best quality products and world-class labs for testing as India embarks on an unprecedented global trade engagement.

Underlining the need to reduce logistics costs to make our factory products competitive in global markets, he asked the states to reduce state-specific disabilities. The Commerce Minister also urged the States to undertake suitable amendments in Labour laws to take advantage of PLIs induced manufacturing growth. "Cost of doing business needs to be assessed State-wise," he remarked.

Goyal asked Industry captains to take advantage of low labour costs and reap the benefits of India's huge scale and demographic dividend. Pointing out that every country cannot be good in all sectors, Shri Goyal said India has to choose the niche and specific areas and excel in it. "Take comparative cost advantage in key areas," he said.

Goyal identified key focus areas for improvement to achieve robust growth of the manufacturing sector. These areas include land, skill development, government and Industry partnership and compliance of Model Labour Law.

Encouraging the Industry to go for technology transfer and indigenization of chip manufacturing, Goyal said there are great possibilities emerging in new sectors. "Huge opportunities exist in the drones sector," he said while stressing proper regulations to be worked out by the Ministry of Civil Aviation for the growth of this niche sector. Calling upon the electronics industry to aim for local value addition in TV manufacturing from the current 28 percent to 43.7 percent, Goyal said the Set-Top Box (STB), CCTV, mobile handsets and television manufacturers should come out with plans on how localization can be achieved.

Goyal lauded the air conditioner manufacturers for achieving a great degree of localization and also switching over to CFL-free cooling technology. On the switch over to clean energy in the automobiles sector, the Minister stressed ramping up indigenous production of magnets and electric motors.

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