News Brief
Arun Dhital
Apr 08, 2026 | Updated 03:57 PM GMT+5:30
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The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is in talks with the finance ministry to design a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme aimed at kickstarting domestic manufacturing of polysilicon, the foundational raw material used in over 95 per cent of the world’s solar panels, Business Standard reported.
Polysilicon is produced by refining silicon rock into high-purity multi-crystalline structures, which are then processed into wafers, cells and eventually photovoltaic modules.
The segment is heavily dominated by Chinese manufacturers, who control more than 93 per cent of global output, and also serves as a key feedstock for the semiconductor industry.
India has built substantial capacity in the downstream segments of the solar value chain in recent years. The country now has 172 GW of module manufacturing capacity and around 65 GW of cell manufacturing capacity, largely driven by the government’s ALMM framework.
“So, in these areas, we have created adequate capacity but we still have dependence on imports upstream. For that, we are discussing a scheme with the Ministry of Finance to support polysilicon manufacturing,” MNRE Secretary Santosh Kumar Sarangi told Business Standard.
Sarangi explained that the ALMM route may not be effective for polysilicon because the players involved in upstream manufacturing differ from those operating in the ingots-to-modules space.
“We think ALMM might not work for polysilicon because the stakeholders are different. So, we might have to push a PLI kind of a scheme for that. We are in discussion with the finance ministry to see what kind of support would give us investment in this particular area,” he said.
The ministry recently notified ALMM List-III for ingots and wafers, which will take effect from June 2028.
ALMM List-I for modules is already operational, while List-II for solar cells kicks in from June 2026.
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