Government disburses ₹35,354 crore under PLI schemes till March 2026
The government has disbursed a cumulative ₹35,354 crore in incentives under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes till March 2026, against an approved outlay of about ₹1.97 lakh crore across 14 sectors.
The pharmaceuticals PLI scheme alone has driven cumulative sales of over ₹3.64 lakh crore, enabling domestic manufacture of 1,931 pharmaceutical products.
Of these, 191 bulk drugs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) are being produced in India for the first time, directly cutting import dependence on Chinese APIs.
Cumulative investment in the pharmaceuticals PLI scheme has reached ₹41,943 crore as of December 2025 — more than double the initial committed investment of ₹17,275 crore.
A separate PLI scheme for bulk drugs (Critical KSMs/Drug Intermediates/APIs) has led to import savings of about ₹1,362 crore, alongside rising annual incentive payouts.
Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme — Design and Mechanism
The PLI scheme was launched in March 2020 under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat framework, initially covering mobile manufacturing and select sectors, and later expanded to 14 strategic sectors including pharmaceuticals, bulk drugs/APIs, medical devices, electronics, automobiles and auto components, telecom, textiles, specialty steel, white goods, food processing, solar PV modules, and Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) batteries. The scheme does not give upfront capital subsidy; instead, it pays a percentage-based incentive on net incremental sales (over a fixed base year) of goods manufactured in India, for a period of up to five years. An Empowered Committee oversees scheme implementation and fund disbursement across the concerned nodal ministries.
Key Details
- Total approved outlay across all 14 sectors: approximately ₹1.97 lakh crore.
- Incentive mechanism: tied to incremental sales growth over a base year, not fixed grants — this ensures payouts track actual manufacturing output.
- Cumulative disbursement till March 2026: ₹35,354 crore.
- The scheme's broader cumulative impact (all sectors, since inception): over ₹2.4 lakh crore in investment, ₹15.2 lakh crore in exports, and more than 14.15 lakh jobs created.
The ₹35,354 crore figure is the aggregate payout across all 14 PLI sectors; the pharmaceuticals vertical is one of the best-performing sub-schemes in terms of import substitution, illustrating how the incremental-sales mechanism is meant to work in practice.
PLI for Pharmaceuticals and Bulk Drugs — Reducing Import Dependence on APIs
India depends heavily on China for bulk drugs (APIs/Key Starting Materials), a vulnerability exposed during COVID-19 supply disruptions. To address this, the government runs two linked schemes: the PLI Scheme for Pharmaceuticals (covering high-value drugs, biopharmaceuticals, and complex generics) and a separate PLI Scheme for Bulk Drugs, which specifically targets 41 critical APIs and Key Starting Materials (KSMs) where India was almost entirely import-dependent, alongside four Bulk Drug Parks being developed to create common infrastructure for API manufacturing clusters.
Key Details
- 1,931 pharmaceutical products are now manufactured domestically under the PLI umbrella; 191 bulk drugs are being made in India for the first time.
- Pharma PLI incentive payouts rose from ₹655.15 crore in FY23 to ₹2,330 crore in FY25; bulk drugs scheme payouts rose from ₹5.95 crore to ₹21.30 crore over the same period, reflecting scaling production.
- Import savings attributable to the Bulk Drugs PLI scheme are estimated at around ₹1,362 crore.
- The nodal ministry for both schemes is the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.
The pharma-sector numbers in the disbursement update are the clearest evidence of PLI's stated policy goal — import substitution in strategically sensitive sectors — being realised, with bulk-drug self-sufficiency directly linked to health and supply-chain security (a recurring Mains theme).
- Cumulative PLI disbursement across 14 sectors: ₹35,354 crore till March 2026 (approved outlay: ~₹1.97 lakh crore).
- Pharmaceuticals PLI cumulative sales: over ₹3.64 lakh crore; 1,931 products manufactured domestically.
- 191 bulk drugs produced in India for the first time under the scheme.
- Pharma PLI cumulative investment: ₹41,943 crore (December 2025), against an initial commitment of ₹17,275 crore.
- Bulk Drugs PLI scheme: import savings of approximately ₹1,362 crore; four Bulk Drug Parks being developed.
- Nodal ministry: Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.