India anticipates greater participation from Japan in PLI scheme

New Delhi: With the government announcing production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for 13 key sectors including telecom and automobiles, India is looking forward to a greater participation from Japan in the programme, a top government official said on Friday.

Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Guruprasad Mohapatra said the government has undertaken several policy reforms, including PLI scheme, to boost manufacturing and exports. The key sectors covered under the scheme include telecommunication, food processing, medical devices, automobile and its components, textiles and solar PV modules. Japan's expertise is known world over in these sectors and "we look forward to a lot of interest from Japan to participate in the PLI scheme of India", Mohapatra said at FICCI's 44th joint meeting of the India-Japan Business Cooperation Committee.

He also said that both countries are working for enhancing India's industrial competitiveness. "India and Japan are collaborating in the form of India-Japan industrial competitiveness partnership. As a part of this partnership, it is proposed that governments of India and Japan will jointly work towards enhancing India's industrial competitiveness, and the discussions have started, joint working groups have been formed and we are making very steady progress," he added.

Mohapatra said Japan has announced an incentive package to help Japanese companies in this new era, and it provides India an unique opportunity to attract fresh Japanese investments into India. Speaking at the webinar, Japanese Ambassador to India Satoshi Suzuki said it is important for India to have a more stable business environment to further strengthen bilateral economic ties.