₹6,322-cr PLI scheme for specialty steel gets nod
NEW DELHI: The union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday approved the ₹6,322 crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for specialty steel that is expected to attract investments of around ₹40,000 crore.
The decision is part of India’s playbook of creating global manufacturing champions in India and bring the country at par with global steel making majors such as South Korea and Japan.
“The duration of the scheme will be five years from 2023-24 to 2027-28.With a budgetary outlay of ₹6,322 crores, the scheme is expected to bring in investment of approximately ₹40,000 crores and capacity addition of 25 MT for speciality steel. The scheme will give employment to about 5,25,000 people of which 68,000 will be direct employment,” the government said in a statement.
Prime Minister Modi in February invited global firms to take advantage of the ₹1.97 lakh crore PLI schemes for 13 sectors and expand their manufacturing in India. The plan involves removing sectoral disabilities and creating economies of scale to develop complete component eco-systems in India.
“Speciality steel has been chosen as the target segment because out of the production of 102 million tonnes steel in India
in 2020-21, only 18 million tonnes value added steel/speciality steel was produced in the country. Apart from this, out of 6.7 million tonnes of imports in the same year, nearly 4 million tonnes import was of specialty steel alone,” the statement added.
The PLI scheme for speciality steel comes in the backdrop of a robust demand for steel and high prices. Also, the government has lined up a large infrastructure capital expenditure plan that will require steel as a major input.
“It is expected that the speciality steel production will become 42 million tonnes by the end of 2026-27. This will ensure that approximately 2.5 lakh crores worth of speciality steel will be produced and consumed in the country which would otherwise have been imported. Similarly, the export of specialty steel will become around 5.5 million tonnes,” the statement added.
The union cabinet also approved plan to establish a central university in Ladakh at a cost of ₹750 crore.
Union minister Anurag Thakur said this will address regional imbalances in education as the newly carved union territory does not have a top higher educational institutions even though Jammu and Kashmir have their share of good higher educational institutions.
After the division of J&K into two UTs, the minister said, it was a necessity and will cater to the need of the entire region. The minister said the first phase of the new central varsity will be ready in four years but he indicated that varsity may commence operations before that timeline as is the case with several central universities in recent years.
The minister, said the new university will be a catalyst in the development of the region. The union government will amend the central university act to accommodate the initiative.
However, the cabinet briefing, did not mention whether the new central university can actually function with its optimal capacity in a place like Ladakh with its geographical limitation as an education hub for students even from outside the region.