NITI Aayog Reviews PLI Schemes: Big Gains in Output and Investment, but Jobs Lag Behind
NITI Aayog released a report called Impact Assessment of PLI Schemes on 12 November 2026. It was prepared together with the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad.
The report studied 14 Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes. These schemes give companies a cash reward for producing more in India.
Up to March 2026, the schemes attracted about ₹2.4 lakh crore of investment and led to ₹22.66 lakh crore of production and sales.
Against their full targets, the schemes reached 76% of the investment target and 64% of the production target. But jobs reached only 28% of the target: about 8.49 lakh jobs against a target of 30.18 lakh. At this point, the schemes had completed 58% of their run.
The report says more investment does not automatically mean more jobs, especially where factories use a lot of machines (automation) and money (capital intensity). Large-scale electronics, food processing, bulk drugs, telecom and white goods did well; textiles lagged.
It recommends that future schemes go beyond production rewards: more government buying of Indian-made goods, help to find export markets, better skills, better Centre-state coordination and standard data reporting by ministries.
Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme
The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme is a government plan that pays companies a cash reward for making more goods in India. The reward is a small percentage of the extra sales a company makes over a fixed base year. So a company gets paid only after it actually produces and sells more. The aim is to build big factories in India, cut imports and raise exports.
The NITI Aayog report is the first broad check of how the 14 PLI schemes are doing. It shows the schemes are good at pulling in investment and raising output, but weak at creating jobs so far.
Jobless Growth and Employment Elasticity
Jobless growth means a country's economy (its total output, or GDP) keeps growing, but the number of jobs grows very slowly or not at all. Factories and businesses produce more, but they do it with more machines and fewer extra workers. Employment elasticity is the number that measures this. It tells us how much employment grows when output grows by 1%.
The NITI Aayog report shows a classic jobless-growth pattern inside the PLI schemes. Investment reached 76% and production 64% of target, but jobs reached only 28%. The report itself points to automation and capital intensity as the main reasons, which is exactly why employment elasticity in these sectors is low.
NITI Aayog: Role and Mandate
NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) is the Union government's main policy think tank. It was set up on 1 January 2015 through a Union Cabinet resolution, replacing the Planning Commission (1950). It advises the Centre and the states, and it also studies how well government schemes are working.
The PLI review is an example of NITI Aayog's evaluation role. Its recommendations, such as more public procurement of Indian goods and standard data reporting, are advice to ministries, not binding orders.
- Report: Impact Assessment of PLI Schemes, NITI Aayog with IIM Ahmedabad, released 12 November 2026
- Coverage: 14 PLI schemes; data up to March 2026; 58% of scheme period completed
- Investment: about ₹2.4 lakh crore (76% of target)
- Production and sales: ₹22.66 lakh crore (64% of target)
- Jobs: 8.49 lakh against a target of 30.18 lakh (28%)
- About 70% of targeted segments broadly on track
- Large-scale electronics: ₹20,580 crore investment, ₹11.61 lakh crore output, 1.69 lakh jobs
- Food processing: over ₹9,200 crore investment, 3.29 lakh jobs
- White goods: domestic value addition up from 20% to 55%
- Textiles: ₹8,117 crore investment, ₹11,241 crore sales, 33,427 jobs
- PLI incentives disbursed: about ₹36,754 crore as of 30 June 2026