Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
DLI Scheme
Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme
Deployment DLI of 4-6% of net sales over 5 years (cap Rs 30 crore) for any domestic company; plus, for DPIIT startups / Udyam MSMEs, Product DLI reimbursing up to 50% of eligible design expenditure (cap Rs 15 crore), MPW & post-silicon validation reimbursement (up to Rs 30 lakh), and ChipIN access to the national EDA grid & IP core repository.
Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme
Deployment DLI of 4-6% of net sales over 5 years (cap Rs 30 crore) for any domestic company; plus, for DPIIT startups / Udyam MSMEs, Product DLI reimbursing up to 50% of eligible design expenditure (cap Rs 15 crore), MPW & post-silicon validation reimbursement (up to Rs 30 lakh), and ChipIN access to the national EDA grid & IP core repository.
Who qualifies
Domestic companies (more than 50% owned by resident Indian citizens / Indian companies) engaged in semiconductor design (ICs, chipsets, SoCs, systems & IP cores). Any domestic company can claim the Deployment DLI on net sales; DPIIT-recognised startups and Udyam MSMEs additionally get the Product DLI (up to 50% of design cost), MPW/post-silicon support, and ChipIN infrastructure access. One online application to C-DAC.
- Instrument
- Tax / duty / cost reimbursement
- Issued by
- Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
- Coverage
- All India
- Launched
- 2021
What it is worth
4–6%% of net sales of the deployed design (per year, over 5 years)
Capped at Rs 30 crore (300000000) per application over 5 years
Deployment Linked Incentive (D-DLI): 6%-to-4% of net sales of the deployed semiconductor design, paid over 5 years (Year 1-2: 6%, Year 3-4: 5%, Year 5: 4%), capped at Rs 30 crore per application (Annexure-I.3). Open to ANY domestic company as well as startups/MSMEs. Requires the design to be deployed in electronic products and cumulative net sales over Years 1-5 of at least Rs 1 crore (startup/MSME) or Rs 5 crore (other domestic company) - the forward-looking net-sales threshold is a per-year disbursement condition, not an application gate, and is left unmodelled.
- In certain cases
50%% of eligible design expenditure
Capped at Rs 15 crore (150000000) per application
Product Design Linked Incentive (P-DLI): milestone-linked reimbursement of up to 50% of eligible design expenditure, ceiling Rs 15 crore per application (Annexure-I.2). Eligible heads (Guidelines Sec 2.5): scientific/technical manpower (capped at 50% of the approved incentive), R&D capital equipment, EDA/CAD & IP licences not provided by C-DAC, IPR filing (Indian + international), field trials / silicon bring-up / test & characterization, and production/MPW/NRE (mask, wafer) costs incurred on or after the acknowledgement date. Startup/MSME only (Para 6.1.2). Non-dilutive / non-repayable, disbursed on a reimbursement basis against milestones.
- In certain cases
Up to ₹30 lakhRs per application
Capped at Rs 30 lakh (3000000) per application
Design Infrastructure Support (fiscal): reimbursement of up to Rs 30 lakh per application for MPW (Multi-Project-Wafer) fabrication of the design and post-silicon validation activities (Annexure-I.1). Startup/MSME only (Para 6.1.1).
- In certain cases
Non-cash design-infrastructure access for startups/MSMEs (Para 6.1.1). Detailed application mechanics for the infrastructure are issued separately by C-DAC - Needs verification of current process.
How applying runs
- registrationRegister on the DLI web portal (chips-dli.gov.in) and pay a non-refundable registration fee of Rs 10,000.
- applicationSubmit one online Application Form (Annexure-II) with Applicant Details and a Detailed Project Report (DPR) covering design, development and deployment; within the form the applicant selects the applicable support categories per Para 6.1 eligibility.
- appraisalC-DAC (Nodal Agency, under MeitY) screens and appraises on an ongoing basis for eligibility, target-segment fit and threshold/ceiling limits, then issues an approval letter with milestones.
- disbursementPer-category claims are filed after the relevant milestone / financial-year threshold and disbursed on a reimbursement basis via PFMS/DBT after C-DAC verification (quarterly / half-yearly / annual).
Worth knowing
- Notified in the Gazette (CG-DL-E-21122021-232049, 21-Dec-2021) under the Semicon India Programme; implemented by C-DAC as Nodal Agency under MeitY; Rs 1,000 crore outlay. RECONCILIATION: two research drafts modelled DLI differently (Program + 3 Components vs single node). Modelled here as ONE Scheme node with the three support categories as benefits, because there is a single application form, single Rs 10,000 registration, single DPR and single approval letter (docs/07 layer rule: a node is separate only when independently applied-for). The differing eligible-applicant sets are captured as conditional benefits (Deployment DLI flat for any domestic company; Product DLI + Design-Infra + ChipIN conditional on Startup/MSME).
- Domestic status (>50% resident-Indian ownership) must be retained for 3 years after claiming incentives (Para 3.2) - a post-award covenant, not an application gate. An applicant may submit another application once an earlier one is approved/rejected/closed; DLI eligibility does not affect eligibility under other schemes.
- Para 2.1 restricts applicants to a 'Private Limited Company or Public Limited Company', which conflicts internally with the MSME/startup definitions (Sec 2.10-2.11) that admit LLPs/partnerships; gated here on the clean uncontested 'is a domestic company' fact (applicant_type + >50% Indian ownership) rather than a contested legal-form list. If the precise form gate is wanted, add 'Public Limited Company' to the entity_type vocab (flagged, not force-fit).
- Application window initially 3 years from 01-01-2022 (Para 4), extended by the Minister; portal live (last updated Nov 2025). A revamped 'DLI 2.0' (consortia with global partners, >=51% Indian equity, larger firms) was under consideration as of 2026 - Needs verification of current status/ceilings/startups-only restriction before relying on this record.
Sources
Every figure and condition above is traceable to a government document. Scheme terms change — if this page and the source disagree, the source is right, and we want to know.
Scheme structure, three support categories, eligible-applicant sets per category, eligible expenditure heads, threshold & ceiling limits (Rs 15 cr P-DLI, Rs 30 cr D-DLI, Rs 30 L design-infra), 6-4% year-wise rate, net-sales thresholds, domestic-status definition and 3-year retention.
Official FAQ: nodal agency C-DAC under MeitY; eligibility (domestic companies >50% resident-Indian-owned, MSMEs per 1-Jun-2020, startups per 19-Feb-2019 DPIIT); Product DLI up to 50% capped Rs 15 cr; Deployment DLI 6-4% of net sales capped Rs 30 cr; ChipIN/EDA-IP-MPW-post-silicon support; Rs 10,000 registration fee; reimbursement basis.
https://chips-dli.gov.in/DLI/Faq · retrieved
Scheme scope (ICs/chipsets/SoCs/systems/IP cores over 5 years), C-DAC as Nodal Agency; MPW + post-silicon reimbursement up to Rs 30 lakh; national EDA tool grid & IP core repository.
https://ism.gov.in/design-linked-incentive · retrieved
Domestic status retained for three years after claiming; applicant must meet Threshold and Ceiling Limits; application window initially three years from 01-01-2022; portal live.
https://chips-dli.gov.in/ · retrieved
Last verified · More tax / duty / cost reimbursement programmes
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