The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) issued the first provisional list of 14 drone and drone component manufacturers who will benefit from the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme on Wednesday. Five drone manufacturers and nine drone component makers are among them.

On March 10, 2022, the ministry issued a call for applications from qualifying producers, with a deadline of March 31, 2022. After a thorough examination of their financial records and other relevant documentation, the full list of PLI recipients is expected to be released by June 30, 2022.

For drones and drone components, the PLI plan requires an annual sales turnover of Rs 2 crore for drone companies and Rs 50 lakh for drone component manufacturers, and value addition of above 40% of sales turnover.

On September 30, 2021, the PLI scheme for drones and drone components was announced.

A total incentive of Rs 120 crore will be distributed over three financial years under the scheme, which is approximately double the aggregate turnover of all domestic drone manufacturers in FY 2020-21. The PLI rate is 20% of the value added, which is among the highest rates among PLI schemes. Manufacturers who fail to satisfy the value addition criteria in 2021-22 will be able to recover the lost incentive in the following year if they make up the shortfall in 2022-23, which is a unique element of the drone PLI scheme.

Telecom subscriber base decreases to 116.6 crore in February: TRAI

RBI further tightens regulations for non-bank lenders

India has the highest fintech adoption rate of 20 unicorns in 2-3 yrs: FM