The Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme has attracted actual investments exceeding Rs2 lakh crore since its 2020 launch, according to the Economic Survey 2025-26.
Through September 2025, the scheme has generated incremental production and sales surpassing Rs18.7 lakh crore, employment creation of over 12.6 lakh jobs (direct and indirect), and exports exceeding Rs8.2 lakh crore. The Survey noted that cumulative incentives of Rs23,946 crore have also been disbursed across 12 sectors, with 806 applications approved across all 14 sectors.
A closer look at the sector-wise performance reveals that electronics has emerged as the flagship success story, with the PLI scheme encouraging major smartphone companies to relocate production to India, transforming the country into a major mobile phone manufacturing and assembly hub.
Forbes India has previously reported how despite PLI gains in the electronics sector, a critical dependency on semiconductor import still remains. Even as assembly scales, and production of mobile phones has risen tenfold over the last decade to Rs5.5 lakh crore in FY25, India’s reliance on imported silicon chips—the most expensive and technologically complex component of any smartphone—continues to grow.
Semiconductor chip imports have climbed to $24.7 billion in 2024-25, accounting for 67 percent of all electronics imports. And reflecting the government’s aggressive push to consolidate these gains, the budgetary allocation for the PLI scheme has nearly doubled in just two years to about Rs8,900 crore in FY26 compared to FY24, just as the original six-year tenure of the mobile phone PLI approaches its March 2026 deadline. The government is reportedly weighing a fresh extension or a successor ‘PLI 2.0’ to avoid risking the gains.
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Meanwhile, the Survey highlights that beyond electronics, the pharmaceutical sector has also demonstrated a strong PLI performance. In the first three years, sales under the PLI scheme crossed Rs2.6 lakh crore, including exports worth Rs1.7 lakh crore. Overall domestic value addition reached 83.7 percent as of March 2025.
The automobile and auto components sectors have also attracted cumulative investments exceeding Rs35,600 crore, creating about 49,000 jobs through September 2025.
The PLI scheme had an initial outlay of Rs1.97 lakh crore and was intended to attract investments in 14 key sectors and achieve economies of scale to make Indian manufacturers globally competitive.
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On India’s overall industrial sector, the Survey notes that in FY26, the sector displayed resilience and regained momentum despite persistent global headwinds, partly driven by the shift toward high-technology manufacturing.
