Ministry of Heavy Industries

Choosing the right scheme

• Automotive and battery manufacturers should start with the two production-linked schemes, PLI Auto and PLI ACC.
• Research institutes, universities and industry bodies should look at the Capital Goods schemes, which sanction projects to named institutes.
• Start-ups that want to work on a manufacturing technology problem can look at the Technology Innovation Portals.
• Buyers of electric vehicles are not the audience for the founder-facing schemes on this page.

How applications work

• PLI Auto and PLI ACC each link from the ministry's page to their own portal.
• The electric passenger car scheme links from its page to its own portal.
• The rare earth magnet scheme is bid for under the request for proposal listed on the ministry's scheme notification page.
• Capital Goods projects appear on the Capital Goods Scheme Portal once approved. The ministry's pages do not describe an open application route for individual founders.

How selection works

• The ministry's pages do not set out eligibility or selection criteria for most schemes. Read the scheme notification before you plan around one.
• For the ACC scheme, the milestones are 25 per cent domestic value addition and a mandatory investment within two years, then 60 per cent within five years.

What to check before you apply

• Confirm dates on the source before you rely on them. The PLI Auto incentive period differs between the ministry's page and the portal.
• For the ACC scheme, check how much capacity is still open. The ministry's page says 20 GWh is open for fresh allocation.

The Ministry of Heavy Industries is a Union ministry of the Government of India. It is responsible for heavy engineering and machine tools, heavy electrical engineering and the automotive industry, and its office is in GPOA-3, Netaji Nagar, New Delhi. Most of its schemes are aimed at manufacturers, investors and institutes rather than early-stage founders, but a few reach start-ups directly.

What the ministry does

The ministry says it is concerned with developing the heavy engineering and machine tools industry, the heavy electrical engineering industry and the automotive industry. Its stated vision is to have a globally competitive, green and technology-driven heavy industry manufacturing sector, including automotive and capital goods, that drives growth and job creation.

It administers central public sector enterprises and four autonomous bodies. The number of enterprises is stated two ways on its site. The home page refers to 29 operating central public sector enterprises, while the roles page says the ministry administers 40 central public sector enterprises and their subsidiaries. The site does not settle which count is current.

How its programmes work

The Production Linked Incentive scheme for the automobile and auto component industry pays financial incentives for domestic manufacture of Advanced Automotive Technology products. Its Champion OEM Incentive is linked to sales value and covers battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles of all segments. The ministry's page says the scheme covers five years from FY2022-23 to FY2026-27. The PLI Auto portal says the incentive applies from FY2023-24 for five consecutive financial years, to FY2027-28. The two dates differ, and both are shown here as published.

A second production-linked scheme covers giga-scale Advanced Chemistry Cell battery manufacturing. Domestic and overseas investors can take part if the factories are set up in India. Three firms have been allocated 30 GWh of capacity, and the ministry's page says 20 GWh is still open for fresh allocation. Beneficiaries must reach 25 per cent domestic value addition and make a mandatory investment per GWh of committed capacity within two years. They must then raise domestic value addition to 60 per cent within five years.

The two Capital Goods schemes support technology development and common facilities for the capital goods sector. Phase I was rolled out in November 2014 to foster partnerships between academia and industry. Phase II was notified on 25 January 2022 to expand the impact of Phase I, and under it a selected academic institute or industry body acts as an Accelerator. Projects are sanctioned to named institutes, so these are not open intakes for individual founders. The pages do not state a current application window.

The Technology Innovation Portals are six web-based platforms for manufacturing technology. Industry, start-ups, domain experts, research institutions and academia can use them to offer technology solutions, suggestions and expert opinions. They were developed under Phase I of the capital goods scheme and are supported under Phase II.

The ministry also lists newer schemes. The Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Electric Passenger Cars in India was approved on 15 March 2024, and its page does not set out who can apply. The Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Sintered Rare Earth Permanent Magnet selects manufacturers through a request for proposal issued on 20 March 2026, with addenda up to 29 July 2026. The PM e-Bus Sewa Payment Security Mechanism, notified in October 2024, protects bidders, operators and manufacturers of electric buses if public transport authorities default on monthly payments.

Some schemes are for buyers rather than founders. The Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme 2024 gave incentives for electric two- and three-wheelers, mainly those registered for commercial use, for a period that ended on 31 July 2024. FAME-India Phase II was stated to run for three years from 1 April 2019, and most of its budgetary support was allocated to demand incentives for electric vehicles.

Facilities

Two facilities are listed on the ministry's site. Four Industry 4.0 SAMARTH centres, which are Smart Advanced Manufacturing and Transformation Hubs, are located at IISc Bengaluru, C4i4 Pune, CMTI Bengaluru and IIT Delhi. The Integrated Machine Tools Park at Tumakuru in Karnataka covers 530 acres and is an industrial park for the machine tool industry. It includes an incubation, test and certification centre and common engineering facilities.

Scale

The ministry's site reports the following counts, and none of them carries a stated date. Projects approved under the Capital Goods schemes number 33 under Phase I and 31 under Phase II. Eight Centres of Excellence have been established under Phase I, and according to the site they have developed 25 new technologies at national research institutes such as the IITs, IISc and CMTI, with a number of them commercialised. Fifteen Common Engineering Facility Centres have been set up, including the four SAMARTH centres. Over 76,000 students, experts, institutes, industries and labs have registered on the Technology Innovation Portals.