Lok Sabha Question No. 114 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-12-07
Subject: PMGDISHA
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Pradyut Bordoloi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 114

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 07.12.2022

## PMGDISHA

## 114.    SHRI PRADYUT BORDOLOI:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a) the  total  funds  sanctioned,  allocated,  and  spent  on  Pradhan  Mantri  Gramin  Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) for financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22;
- (b) the reasons for reduction in allocation to PMGDISHA inspite of uptick in digitalisation due to several Central/State schemes and the pandemic;
- (c) the measures and standards taken to ensure the better quality of training under PMGDISHA;
- (d) the current status of projects undertaken through schemes for the Promotion of Electronics and IT HW Manufacturing including MSIPS, EDF and Manufacturing Clusters; and
- (e) whether any impact evaluations have been conducted on the above schemes and if so, the details thereof ?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR)

- (a):  Total  funds  sanctioned,  allocated  and  spent  on  Pradhan  Mantri  Gramin  Digital  Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) Scheme, for the FY 2020-21 and 2021-22 is as below:
- (b):  Due    to  Covid-19  pandemic,  the  physical  training  activities  could  not  be  held  during lockdown  and    resumed  as  per  the  guidelines  issued  by  Central,  state  governments,  local authorities. So far, as against a total target of covering 6 crore beneficiaries, more than 6.59 crore candidates  have  been  enrolled  and  5.66  crore  have  been  trained,  out  of  which  4.20  crore candidates have been duly certified under the PMGDISHA Scheme across the country.
- (c): The measures taken to ensure the quality of training under PMGDISHA scheme are as under:
-  The  scheme  implementation  is  continuously  reviewed  through  central  as  well  as state  teams  of  the  implementing  agency  under  the  overall  supervision  of  the Ministry.
-  Standardized  multimedia  content  in  22  Languages  has  been  made  available  and accessible in multimodal format for all candidates.
-  Only  those  who  possess  prescribed  educational  qualifications  are  engaged  as Trainers.
-  Requisite/prescribed IT infrastructure is ensured at the Training Centres.
-  The training centres are monitored, trained and re-trained for maintaining quality.

| Year    | Funds sanctioned (INR) (BE)   | Funds Allocated(INR) (RE)   | Funds) released/spent (INR)   |
|---------|-------------------------------|-----------------------------|-------------------------------|
| 2020-21 | 400 Cr                        | 250 Cr                      | 250 Cr                        |
| 2021-22 | 300 Cr                        | 300 Cr                      | 300                           |

(d) and (e): The  details  of    projects  undertaken  through  schemes  for  the  Promotion  of Electronics  and  IT  Hardware  manufacturing  viz.  MSIPS,  EDF  and  Electronics  Manufacturing Clusters and the findings of the impact evaluation report of these schemes are at Annexure-I .

The findings of the impact evaluation report of the PMGDISHA Scheme are at Annexure-II .

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## Annexure-I

The  details  of    projects  undertaken  through  schemes  for  the  Promotion  of  Electronics  and  IT Hardware manufacturing viz. Electronics Manufacturing Clusters, MSIPS and EDF and findings of the impact evaluations report of these schemes are as under:

- i. Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC) scheme was launched in October, 2012 to provide support for creation of world-class infrastructure along with common facilities and  amenities  for  attracting  investments  in  the  electronics  sector.  The  scheme  extends financial assistance for development of Greenfield Electronics Manufacturing Cluster and Common Facility Centre (CFC) across the country. The scheme was closed for receipt of applications  from  21 st October,  2017.  Under  the  scheme,  19  Greenfield  EMCs  and  3 Common Facility Centres (CFCs) accorded approval covering an area of 3,464 acres with project  cost  of  Rs.  3,639  crore  including  Central  Grant-in-aid  of  Rs.  1,503  crore  in  15 states across the country. As on Nov. 2022; Grant-in-aid amount of Rs. 834.34 crore has been  released.  About  369  companies  have  booked  manufacturing  space  with  their proposed investment of  Rs.  55,336  crore.  About  9,120  crore  have  been  mobilized  and generated 28,577 employments.

A  third-party  evaluation  of  the  scheme  was  done  through  an  independent  agency  M/s Indian  Institute  of  Public  Administration  (IIPA)  in  year  2019  wherein  considering  the infrastructure  requirement  of  the  electronics  industry  delivered  through  the  scheme, agency recommended for continuation of the scheme in modified form. Consequent upon the  evaluation  and  approval  of  Union  Cabinet, Modified  Electronics  Manufacturing Clusters (EMC 2.0) Scheme was notified on 1 st April, 2020 which provides support for creation  of  world  class  infrastructure  along  with  common  facilities  and  amenities, including Ready Built Factory (RBF) sheds / Plug and Play facilities for attracting major global  electronics  manufacturers  along  with  their  supply  chain  to  set  up  units  in  the country.  As  on  Nov.  2022,  3  applications  covering  an  area  of  1,337  acres  have  been approved with a project cost of INR 1902.69 crore including Central financial assistance of  INR 889.02 crore which is poised to attract an investment of INR 20,910 crore and having potential to generate 51,520 employment opportunities. An amount of INR 205.24 crore has been released for scheme execution.

- ii. MSIPS: Under  the  Scheme,  320  applications  with  proposed  investment  of  Rs  89,194 crore  are  under  consideration.  Out  of  these  320  applications,  315  applications  with proposed investment of approximately Rs. 86,904 crore have been approved, 3 applications  with  proposed  investment  of  approximately  Rs. 197  crore  have  been recommended  by  the  Appraisal  Committee  for  approval,  2  applications  with  proposed investment of Rs 2,093 crore are under appraisal. Incentives  amounting  to Rs  1917.09 crore have been disbursed under this Scheme.

Out of 315 approved applicants, 271 applicants have started incurring investment on their projects and have made investment of ₹ 33,506 crore. 242 applicants have commenced commercial  production  with  reported  turnover  of  ₹ 6,63,274 crore,  which  includes exports to the tune of ₹ 1,06,740 crore. These units have given employment opportunities (Direct &Indirect) to over 3,45,571 persons and given revenue of about ₹ 85,697 crore to the Government.

The impact evaluation of the Scheme was done  by National productivity  Council   and report was submitted in June, 2022. The key data points of the report are as under:

-  In  the  state-wise  context,  Maharashtra  has  the  highest  applications  (64) approved yet could generate a moderate employment (direct + indirect) of 18776, whereas, Uttar Pradesh has 40 approved applications could generate an employment of over 1.26 lakh. This indicates that labour- intensive sectors are located relatively more in Uttar Pradesh.
-  In the sector-wise context, Automotive Electronics related Approved Applications were found to be the highest at 49, the employment generated was at moderate level of 10,000 plus personnel whereas the Mobile & Accessories sector with a middle range  approved  application  of  24  beneficiary  units  generated  an  employment  of over 1.13 lakh as of June 2021.
-  In the context of employment generation vis a vis investment made in the sector, it is found that the LED sector has achieved the highest employment generation per Crore rupees of investment at a value of 25 personnel per Crore of investment while on the contrary around 10 sectors have reported employment generation per Crore of investment in a single digit of 9 or below.
-  The  achievement  regarding  proportion  of  Exports  to  Sales  has  been  found  to  be significant during 2018-19 at a level of 41 percent. However, thereafter companies focused more on the growing domestic market which led to the declining trend in this  ratio  to  13  percent  in  2019-20  but  increased  in  the  subsequent  year  to  27 percent.
-  Regarding the sector-wise Exports distribution per applicant, the Solar sector has exhibited  an  impressive  average  performance  of  exports  as  Rs.  411.60  Cr  per applicant. The second highest exporter per applicant has been found to be Mobile & Accessories with Rs.295.7 Cr. Whereas the lowest in this range was Printed Circuit Board with Rs.9.46 Cr of exports per applicant.
- iii. Electronics  Development  Fund: Electronics  Development  Fund  (EDF)  is  set  up  as  a 'Fund  of  Funds'  to  participate  in  professionally  managed  'Daughter  Funds'  which  in turn are providing risk capital to companies developing new technologies in the area of electronics, nano-electronics and Information Technology (IT). As on 30.10.2022, EDF has  invested  Rs.  240.31  crore  in  eight  Daughter  Funds,  which  in  turn  have  made investments of Rs. 1229.40 crore in 128 Ventures/Startups. These Daughter Funds have exited  from  25  investments  and  written  off  8  investments.  The  cumulative  returns received in EDF from the proceedings of these exits is Rs 90.68 crore.

The third-party impact assessment of EDF was done in year 2020. The major highlights of the impact assessment of EDF are as follows:

-  Financial Performance:
- a. EDF  backed  portfolio  companies  cumulatively  generated  ~INR  2,000  Cr revenue in FY20.
- b. IT companies have generated 4x revenues (~INR 1,650 Cr) in FY20 than ESDM companies (~INR 350 Cr)
- c. ~25 (out of 72) portfolio companies are in their product development stage and hence had revenues less than INR 1 Cr in FY20
- d. ~26 (out of 39) ESDM companies have revenues between INR 1-10 Cr in FY20
- e. While majority of the portfolio  companies are yet to breakeven, seven companies were EBITDA profitable in FY20
- f. Six  portfolio  companies  have  ceased  operations  and  hence  have  been  written down by daughter funds

##  Fund Raising and Valuations:

- a. ~50+ (out of 72) portfolio companies have had subsequent rounds of financing post investment from DFs
- b. Daughter funds have made follow on investments in 40+ (out of 72) portfolio companies
- c. ~45+ (out of 72) portfolio companies fair value  has increased post investment from daughter funds as of March'20
- d. Overall, average investments raised by portfolio companies per INR investment by EDF is ~INR 40
- e. Average investment raised by ESDM & IT companies per INR investment by EDF is ~INR 18 and ~INR 54 respectively

##  Company Operations:

- a. Overall,  ~13,500  jobs  have  been  created  by  EDF  backed  companies  as  on Sep'20
- b. ~3,200and ~10,300  jobs  have  been  created  by  ESDM  &  IT  companies respectively
- c. ~70%  companies  have  generated  employment  for  more  than  20  people  and ~40% companies have generated employment for more than 50 people
- d. Portfolio companies have a diverse customer / user base and few companies also have expanded their operations outside India

##  Technology Development:

- a. ~70% (28 out of 39) ESDM companies have at least 1 IP
- b. Overall, portfolio companies have filed/acquired 189 IPs as of Sep'20
- c. ESDM & IT companies have filed/acquired 174 and 15 IPs respectively as of Sep'20
- d. ~40%  portfolio  companies  have  their  IPs  registered  outside  India;  ~75%  IT companies have IPs registered only in India

##  Ecosystem Contribution:

- a. ~40 (out of 72) portfolio companies export their products / services outside India
- b. ~28 (out of 72) ESDM and IT companies products/services contribute to import substitution

##  Impact of Covid-19:

- a. Based  on  the  survey  responses  from  75  portfolio  companies,  38  portfolio companies reported negative impact, 14 companies reported positive impact and 23 companies reported neutral/no impact of covid-19 on their business.

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PMGDISHA Scheme :  The PMGDISHA scheme has been assessed by three agencies till date namely  IIT  Delhi,  Council  for  Social  Development  (CSD)  and  Indian  Institute  of  Public Administration (IIPA).The last Impact Assessment study of the PMGDISHA scheme has been conducted by the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA). The findings of IIPA study report are given below:

-  PMGDISHA is an unique scheme due to its mass scale and use of remotely proctored examination.
-  18%  fund  used  in  SCSP,  12%  for  TSP  and  11%  for  NER  have  made  sure  the empowerment of weaker sections.
-  Women participation is very large and their inclusion at the rural level will open up the path for the learning of the whole family.
-  More  than 55%  of  respondents cited a direct benefit to their livelihoods after PMGDISHA training.
-  Almost 50% respondents stated that PMGDISHA helped them get a better Job.
-  More than  40%  of  respondents  empowered  1-5  people,  22.8%  were  able  to  help  6-10 people, 12.9% were able to help 10-20 people with the knowledge from PMGDISHA.
-  PMGDISHA training has had a formidable impact on the use of ICT and other forms of digital media.
-  PMGDISHA has served the beneficiaries by facilitating their access to a wide range of information points and services for multitude of purposes. It has helped to decrease the overall digital divide in the country.
-  COVID 19 has put an unprecedented situation of uncertainty even in rural India. Digital initiatives  have  made  a  lot  of  things  function  even  in  the  time  of  complete  lockdown. Right from the banking systems, e-governance systems and PDS were aided immensely because of the availability of online processes. People in the rural areas have continued with  their  livelihood  with  the  help  of  digital  systems  helping  procure  their  produce, doorstep  financial  services,  information  gathering  among  other  thing  using  digital technologies. The need of programs like PMGDISHA has become a necessity in times of such paradigm shifts in new environments. Understanding digital tools & ICT and using them  effectively  is  the  need  of  the  hour  and  has  proved  as  the  saviour  for  the  current crisis in supporting economic and social activities.

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