Govt to sort out green nods, visas to Chinese professionals under PLI schemes

The government is trying to sort out issues such as timely processing of claims, visa-related matters where vendors require expertise from Chinese professionals and delay in getting environmental clearances, which have been raised by the stakeholders of production linked incentive (PLI) schemes.

Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba on Thursday reviewed the progress of the PLI schemes for sectors that are “generally doing very well” like pharma, mobile manufacturing, white goods and electronics, a senior official said. Another such review is expected for the remaining sectors.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) held a workshop with concerned PLI stake-holders in June to get feedback.


“Those kinds of things we are trying to sort out. These issues are there in almost all the PLI sectors…there are issues of environmental clearances, in same cases visa issues for Chinese, particularly when their components are getting manufactured here,” the official said.

As per the official, some of those suggestions could be converted into policy decisions.

India has rolled out PLI schemes for 14 sectors including white goods, textiles, automobiles, food products, drones, high-efficiency solar PV modules, and advanced chemistry cell battery, with an outlay of Rs 1.97 lakh crore.

“We are in the process of consulting whether any minor tweaking is required. Once we complete the process, we will be in a position (to do so),” the official said.

The government has disbursed only Rs 2,900 crore till March 2023 out of Rs 3,400 crore claims received under the PLI scheme.

“Disbursement is not a criteria in the general sense to assess whether the scheme is doing good or not. Disbursements don’t really bother us so much because many of the schemes we are talking about are in the gestation stage,” the official said.