Deeper reforms

PLI alone will not bring in investment

The government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme is the closest India has got to an industrial policy. Several PLI programmes have been designed for a subset of sectors that the government believes is relevant for India’s development and economic security. Some of these are clearly related to the green transition, such as the scheme for batteries. But there are others that are more traditional export-oriented sectors. One such is textiles, which is a well-known, labour-intensive sector that is relevant for employment growth. However, as this newspaper has reported, the growth of private investment in some of these sectors — including textiles,