3.1 Concentration of Capital Subsidies in Assembly versus Component Upgrading
The structural architecture of the Production Linked Incentive scheme conditions the distribution of gains across tiers of the semiconductor and electronics supply chain. By tying financial incentives directly to incremental sales of manufactured goods over a specified base year, the state policy framework primarily stimulates top-line capacity expansion, employment generation, and private capital investments among large-scale integrators (SSRN, 2025). This operational design reinforces the competitive positioning of high-volume manufacturing entities in global markets, yet it simultaneously creates distributional asymmetries between lead assemblers and upstream component suppliers. An analytical evaluation of global value chain integration demonstrates that while incentive disbursement strengthens aggregate manufacturing volumes and export performance in high-technology segments, domestic value capture remains constrained when state support emphasizes pure output metrics rather than local capability development (SSRN, 2026). Upstream micro, small, and medium enterprises encounter persistent structural barriers within this framework, including limited access to systematic technology transfer and the capital-intensive infrastructure necessary for advanced precision component fabrication. Consequently, assembly-oriented activities capture the preponderance of public fiscal support, whereas domestic supplier ecosystems experience sluggish technological upgrading and weak inter-firm integration. Addressing these structural equity imbalances requires recalibrating industrial mechanisms toward domestic research, design, and supplier tooling capabilities. Without targeted policy interventions that facilitate technology diffusion, domestic supplier participation, and deep industrial linkages, output-based subsidy regimes risk entrenching reliance on imported inputs while limiting broader technological upgrading across the domestic manufacturing base.