Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing Scheme
Also called: LSEM, PLI for Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing · Topic: Industrial Policy, Public Sector, MSMEs and Disinvestment · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing (LSEM) Scheme is the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme of the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY). It covers mobile phones and specified electronic components. A PLI pays a firm a percentage of its incremental sales, meaning the extra sales it makes above a fixed base year (FY20). A firm is paid only after it crosses its production target, so the scheme rewards real output and not just promises. LSEM is the clearest PLI success so far. Through contract manufacturing, where a brand gets another company to build its product to its design, it has made India a large maker of phones.
Example
Foxconn and Tata Electronics assemble Apple iPhones in India under LSEM. By March 2026, ₹19,091 crore had been paid out against an outlay of ₹34,139 crore, which is more than half the money. In NITI Aayog's 2026 impact assessment of the PLI schemes, mobile manufacturing was judged under LSEM.
Don't confuse with
- IT Hardware PLI 2.0: this is also a MeitY scheme, but it covers laptops, tablets and servers. By March 2026 it had paid only ₹97.85 crore of its ₹16,939 crore outlay, which is less than 1%.
- India Semiconductor Mission (2021, ₹76,000 crore): it supports making chips and chip design. LSEM rewards making phones and components, which is mostly assembly.