The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) on Wednesday said that 42 companies, including Bluestar, Daikin, Havells, Orient Electric, among others have been selected under the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for white goods.

       “Applications for the scheme were invited from 15.06.2021 to 15.09.2021. Total 52 companies filed their application with committed investment of Rs 5,858 crore under the PLI scheme. After evaluation of all the applications, 42 applicants with committed investment of Rs 4,614 crore have been provisionally selected as beneficiaries under the PLI scheme,” an official statement said.

       The outlay for the PLI scheme for white goods--for manufacture of components and sub-assemblies of air conditioners and LED lights--is Rs 6,238 crore.

       It had received the Union Cabinet’s approval in April. The scheme will be implemented over a seven-year period, starting FY22. Applicants were given flexibility to choose the gestation period either up to March 2022 or up to March 2023.

       “The selected applicants include 26 for Air Conditioner manufacturing with committed investments of Rs 3,898 crore and 16 for LED Lights manufacturing with committed investments of Rs 716 crore,” the statement said.

       “Six applicants proposing FDI from countries sharing land border with India have been advised to submit approval for FDI in terms of Press Note 3 (2020) dated April 17, 2020 for consideration of approval under the PLI Scheme,” it said.

       The approved investments of Rs 4,614 crore are likely to generate net incremental production of about Rs 81,254 crore and direct employment of about 44,000 people.

       The investments in AC is expected to result in manufacturing of components across the complete value chain including components which are not manufactured in India with sufficient quantity.

       Currently, there is insignificant manufacturing of certain high value components of ACs like xompressors, copper tubing and aluminium stock for foils. Many other components like control assemblies for indoor units (IDU) or outdoor units (ODU), display units, brushless direct current motors, are not manufactured in enough quantity. All these components will now be manufactured in India in significant quantities.