India selects four global firms to boost IT products manufacturing

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India on Thursday named Dell Inc, Wistron Corp's ICT, Flex Ltd and Foxconn's Rising Stars as its choice of global companies in a $1 billion incentive plan to produce and boost exports of laptops, tablets and personal computers.

Ten Indian companies were also selected, including smartphone maker Lava and Dixon, which makes TVs for Xiaomi Corp in India, the government said in a statement.

Under the plan, manufacturers get cash-backs of 1% to 4% of additional sales of locally made goods over four years, with 2019-2020 as the base year.

In the next four years these companies are expected to produce 1.61 trillion rupees ($21.59 billion) of IT hardware and create more than 36,000 jobs, the government said.

The plan is also likely to help U.S. tech giant Apple Inc assemble some of its iPad tablets in India, Reuters previously reported.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policy push in the electronics sector has prompted Apple suppliers Foxconn and Wistron to expand in India, and driven Pegatron Corp to set up base there.

Modi's strategy, coupled with India's huge market, have also helped turned the country into the world's second-biggest mobile maker after China.

New Delhi wants to replicate the success of smartphone manufacturing with other electronics in a bid to cut imports.

($1 = 74.5640 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal and Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Richard Chang)