17 firms under IT hardware PLI to start production this year: IT secy

Majority of personal computer and server makers selected under the IT hardware production-linked incentive scheme are expected to start production this year, a senior government official said on Friday.

"... About 17 out of 27 PLI companies will start production this year. Around 6-7 of them started production last year and two have plans to start production next year," Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) Secretary S Krishnan said on the sidelines of the inauguration of a new high-end computing server manufacturing unit of Netweb Technologies here.

The government in November, 2023 approved the application of 27 companies, including Dell, HP, Foxconn, Lenovo, Netweb Technologies, under new production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for IT hardware.

Among the big names that have been granted approval under the IT hardware scheme are Flextronics, VVDN, and Optiemus. Other applicants that have received the green signal include Padget Electronics, SOJO Manufacturing Services, Goodworth, Neolync, Syrma SGS, Mega Networks, Panache Digilife, and ITI Ltd, among others.

On the Rs 10,372-crore India AI mission, Krishnan said domestic companies will get preference.

The Cabinet on March 7 this year approved the India AI Mission with an outlay of Rs 10,372 crore for five years to encourage AI development in the country.

The approved corpus will be used to build a high-end scalable AI ecosystem in public-private partnership mode. The mission will be implemented through the IndiaAI Independent Business Division (IBD) under Digital India Corporation (DIC).