Mumbai, June 26 -- The heavy industries ministry on Thursday extended the deadline to submit bids for the production-linked incentives (PLI) scheme to make rare earth magnets by a month to 29 July.

This is the second such extension of the application deadline, which was first slated to end on 28 May this year and was later extended to 29 June.

The extension came after over half a dozen potential applicants requested the government for more time, said two people in the know. So far, the scheme has received only four bids, the people said, compared with the ministry's plan to award benefits to five companies to achieve a slated annual production of 6,000 tonnes of magnets.

After the Rs.7,280-crore ($772 million) incentives scheme was ann...