PLI Schemes Cross ₹36,754 Crore in Incentives: What the Numbers Show About India's Manufacturing Push
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) said the government has paid ₹36,754 crore in incentives to companies under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes, as of 30 June 2026.
PLI schemes run in 14 sectors, started in 2020, with a total approved budget (outlay) of about ₹1.91 lakh crore as per DPIIT's latest figure.
Up to 30 June 2026, PLI companies have made an actual investment of ₹2.58 lakh crore, production or sales of ₹23.79 lakh crore and exports of ₹15.53 lakh crore. The schemes have created over 14.57 lakh jobs (direct and indirect).
Pharmaceuticals: cumulative sales of over ₹3.64 lakh crore. 1,931 medicine products are now made in India under the scheme, including 191 bulk drugs (the main active chemicals in medicines) made in India for the first time.
Medical devices, electronics and speciality steel: global firms have started making CT and MRI machines, cath labs, ultrasound machines, AI servers, SSDs (solid-state drives for storing data), memory modules and battery packs in India. Big steel makers have invested over ₹19,000 crore in speciality steel for cars, defence and renewable energy.
DPIIT also runs an online module (since November 2025) that lets Indian companies sponsor foreign technical experts for the e-Production Investment Business Visa (e-B4 visa), so they can come quickly to help set up production.
Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme
The PLI Scheme is a government plan that pays companies a cash reward for making and selling more goods from their factories in India. The reward is a small percentage of the extra sales a company makes compared to a fixed starting year, called the base year. So the reward is linked to actual production, not to a promise. It aims to make India a large manufacturing base and cut dependence on imports.
The latest DPIIT data is a progress report on the PLI Scheme. It shows that about ₹36,754 crore has been paid out of an outlay of around ₹1.91 lakh crore, while production, exports and jobs linked to the scheme have grown.
Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs)
An Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient, or API, is the part of a medicine that actually treats the illness. In a paracetamol tablet, the paracetamol chemical is the API; the rest is filler that gives the tablet its shape. APIs are also called bulk drugs. They are made from simpler chemicals called Key Starting Materials (KSMs) and Drug Intermediates (DIs). India makes many finished medicines but has long imported a large share of these raw chemicals, mostly from China.
The 191 bulk drugs now made in India for the first time are APIs that the country used to buy from abroad. This matters because a sudden cut in API imports, as seen during COVID-19 supply shocks, can stop medicine production in India.
Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT)
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, or DPIIT, is the part of the Government of India that plans how to grow industry and bring investment into the country. It works under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. You can think of it as the government's "industry and investment office": it writes the rules for foreign investment, helps new startups, protects inventions and brand names, and tries to make it easier to start and run a business in India.
The PLI progress figures were released by DPIIT, which tracks the scheme across all 14 sectors. DPIIT also runs the new online module for sponsoring foreign experts under the e-Production Investment Business Visa, which helps PLI and non-PLI companies set up production faster.
- Cumulative PLI incentives disbursed (as of 30 June 2026): ₹36,754 crore
- PLI sectors: 14; launched 2020; approved outlay about ₹1.91 lakh crore (originally announced about ₹1.97 lakh crore)
- Actual investment: ₹2.58 lakh crore
- Production or sales: ₹23.79 lakh crore
- Exports: ₹15.53 lakh crore
- Employment: over 14.57 lakh (direct and indirect)
- Pharma PLI: cumulative sales over ₹3.64 lakh crore; 1,931 products made domestically, including 191 bulk drugs made in India for the first time
- Medical devices PLI: domestic sales ₹6,475 crore, exports ₹560 crore
- Speciality steel PLI: investment over ₹19,000 crore
- PLI for bulk drugs: 41 products, outlay ₹6,940 crore, period 2020-21 to 2029-30
- e-Production Investment Business Visa (e-B4) sponsorship module launched by DPIIT: November 2025