Within the following three weeks, industry stakeholders will be able to apply for the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme.

Manufacturers seeking to increase domestic capacity through greenfield or brownfield investments were given a boost on Tuesday when the central government announced an incentive program for local manufacturing of a variety of electronic components, including camera modules, battery cells, and smartphone displays.

Following a brief consultation session on how the plan would be made available to the industry, Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at a media briefing that the Electronics Component Manufacturing plan (ECMS) will begin accepting applications from industry stakeholders within the next three weeks.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) is offering incentives of up to 10% of sales and up to 25% of capital expenditures for the establishment of electronics component manufacturing in the nation under the ₹22,919 crore, or $2.7 billion, initiative. The incentives will go into effect as early as this fiscal year.

Additionally, Meity aims to create approximately 90,000 direct employment through program candidates in six years as part of the incentives expenditure. Candidates who satisfy these employment requirements will be eligible for up to 5% of the bonuses. Eleven component categories in all have been chosen for the rewards. Applications for all components will be accepted for three months starting on May 1st, and for machinery and equipment used in component manufacture, they will be accepted for two years.

Vaishnaw stated that the program has the potential to lower the cost of electronics in India as more parts begin to be produced there. Devices will begin to provide higher profits as part of domestic value addition, allowing companies to transfer the cost savings onto consumers.