It will cover manufacture of ready to cook/eat foods, processed fruits and vegetables, marine products and mozzarella cheese

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Central Sector Scheme - "Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Food Processing Industry (PLISFPI)" to support creation of global food manufacturing champions commensurate with India's natural resource endowment and support Indian brands of food products in the international markets.

The scheme entails an outlay of Rs 10,900 crore. Its duration will be for six years from 2021-22 to 2026-27.

According to an official statement released by the Cabinet, the implementation of the scheme would facilitate expansion of processing capacity to generate processed food output of Rs 33,494 crore and; create employment for nearly 2.5 lakh persons by the year 2026-27.

Mainly, the PLI scheme will incentivize manufacturing of four major food product segments -- ready to cook/eat foods, processed fruits and vegetables, marine products and mozzarella cheese.

Besides, innovative and organic products of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) including free range-eggs, poultry meat, egg products will also be covered, the government said in a release.

The selected applicants will have to undertake investment, as quoted in their application, in plant and machinery in the first two years of 2021-22 and 2022-23.

The scheme also envisages providing grants to applicant entities for in-store branding, shelf space renting and marketing with an intention to promote Indian brands abroad.

The PLI Scheme would be monitored at the Centre by the Empowered Group of Secretaries chaired by the Cabinet Secretary.

The Ministry of Food Processing Industries would approve selection of applicants for coverage under the scheme, sanction and release of funds as incentives. The Ministry will prepare an Annual Action Plan covering various activities for implementation of the scheme. A third-party evaluation and mid-term review mechanism would be built in the programme.

A national level portal would be set-up for applicant enterprises to apply for the scheme, while selection of applicants for coverage under the scheme, sanction and release of funds as incentives would be undertaken by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries.