Key Details
NITI Aayog’s Impact Assessment of PLI Schemes, prepared with IIM Ahmedabad, is a mid-course assessment of investment, production, exports and employment across all 14 PLI sectors. Its aggregate figures describe activity reported under the schemes; sector chapters examine whether the available evidence also indicates gains beyond underlying industry trends.
Measure | Position as of March 2026 |
|---|---|
Investment | ₹2.40 lakh crore, or 76% of the full-tenure target |
Production and sales | ₹22.66 lakh crore, or 64% of the full-tenure target |
Employment | 8.49 lakh reported jobs, or 28% of the full-tenure target |
Incentives disbursed | ₹35,354 crore, or 18.51% of the report’s ₹1.91 lakh crore combined outlay |
Implementation period | About 58% of the schemes’ combined duration had elapsed |
The figures should be read together: PLI incentives are paid after eligible firms meet specified conditions, while investment, production and hiring need not occur at the same stage of a project.
Manufacturing Scale Has Grown, but the Sectors Tell Different Stories
The Production Linked Incentive schemes reward eligible firms for meeting specified investment and incremental production or sales conditions. The report finds substantial investment and production across the portfolio, with relatively strong progress in large-scale electronics manufacturing, pharmaceutical drugs, food processing, medical devices, white goods and drones. It also records investment and production gains in automobiles and telecom equipment.
Those results represent different kinds of industrial progress. Mobile phones have gained manufacturing scale and exports. White goods have moved further into making components domestically. In newer industries, including advanced batteries, much of the work still involves building plants and capabilities before commercial production can expand. A single aggregate performance figure cannot capture these differences.
The Employment Gap Is Substantial, Though Hiring Can Follow Investment
Reported employment has reached 28% of its full-tenure target, well behind investment at 76% and production and sales at 64%. The report explains that firms generally invest before commissioning facilities and increasing output; hiring can develop as operations reach scale. Capital-intensive production may also create fewer jobs relative to the money invested.
That sequence provides context, but it does not settle the employment question. The report records a particularly weak year against the annual jobs target in FY 2025–26, when achievement was 31%. Whether employment catches up will depend on how projects develop and on the labour needs of each industry. Assessing PLI’s contribution therefore requires attention to jobs alongside investment and output, rather than assuming one will automatically produce the other.
More Domestic Production Does Not Always Mean More Domestic Components
The report draws a distinction between making a final product in India and building the domestic suppliers that produce its higher-value parts. Mobile manufacturing has expanded strongly, yet the assessment says it remains reliant on imported components such as displays and printed circuit board assemblies. Telecom equipment faces a similar challenge, with manufacturing still concentrated substantially in final assembly.
White goods offer a different example: reported domestic value addition rose from 20% to 55%, alongside growth in local component-making. Solar PV manufacturing capacity rose from 8 GW to nearly 116 GW, but the report attributes approximately 24 GW of that capacity directly to PLI-supported projects—not the entire national increase. These distinctions matter because stronger domestic supply chains, rather than final assembly alone, determine how much manufacturing capability stays in India.
Newer Schemes Need a Different Reading of Progress
The Advanced Chemistry Cell battery scheme illustrates the time needed to build a new manufacturing base. Against a target of 50 GWh of domestic capacity, 1.4 GWh had been developed; commercial production and incentive disbursement had not begun. The report identifies technology, upstream materials, imported machinery, project execution and skills as constraints.
The comparatively small drone scheme shows faster early movement: 77.5% of its allocated funds had been disbursed, and participating firms reported rising investment and turnover. Limited employment and export data, however, narrow what can yet be concluded about its wider effects. In textiles and IT hardware, the report likewise treats some outcomes as still emerging because of scheme transitions, gestation periods or incomplete reporting.
The assessment’s method is important here. It compares reported results with targets and, where possible, with underlying industry trends. It also notes that nominal sales can rise without an equivalent increase in physical output, and that inconsistent data across ministries restrict comparison. Its sector findings are therefore more informative than treating every rupee of reported production—or every industry-wide gain—as an effect of PLI alone.
Policy Relevance
The review gives policymakers three distinct decisions, rather than one verdict on whether PLI has succeeded:
Judge sectors by the capability they are meant to build. Export scale in mobile phones, component localisation in white goods and first-stage capacity in batteries call for different measures of progress.
Connect large manufacturers with smaller suppliers. The report identifies finance, technology, skills and market-access constraints for MSMEs. Addressing these would help determine whether investment by PLI-supported firms develops wider domestic value chains.
Measure what happens after capacity is built. Comparable ministry data on physical output, domestic value addition, exports and employment would show whether reported investment leads to durable manufacturing gains. The report also proposes considering demand-side measures, such as procurement and export-market development, in the design of future incentives.
Follow the Full Report Here: Impact Assessment of PLI Schemes