Rs 1000 Crore DHI Capital Goods Scheme to Promote Make in India Initiative

Industry news

Rs 1000 Crore DHI Capital Goods Scheme to Promote Make in India Initiative

Union Minister for Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises Anant Geete has urged the industry to make use of the Capital Goods Scheme notified by Department of Heavy Industries (DHI), Government of India to bridge the technology gaps in the sector. Shri Geete was inaugurating a DHI-FICCI Workshop on “Technology Development for Capital Goods: Constraints & the Way Forward” in Ahmedabad.

Geete said this scheme launched under the Make in India initiative of Government of India provides support to the industry to acquire technology, set-up technology development centres in collaboration with institutes, and create common infrastructure for the capital goods industry and is is valued at Rs 1000 crore, with the central government contributing around Rs 600 crore to the scheme for the next four years.

Geete said, “While there are some players who have technological competencies, especially in design capability, application innovation and process innovation, the technological capabilities of large number of players, especially in the SME sector, are limited. India has become one of the largest importers of capital goods in the world importing around US$ 20 billion of CG per year. This has adversely affected the indigenous capital goods industry”.

A unique component of the scheme is Technology Acquisition Fund where the government gives support upto 25% of the cost of technology subject to the limit of Rs 10 crore. The scheme would particularly be helpful for the industry in Gujarat as lot of capital goods industry and components producers are present in the state in sectors like textile machinery, plastic machinery, machine tools, process plant and engineering. The engineering clusters of Gujarat can take advantage of this scheme to achieve next levels of the technology.