15 Feb Deadline for Semicon PLI may be Extended to bring in Other Majors

[ABS News Service/21.02.2022]

The government said on Saturday that it received proposals from five companies to set up electronic chip and display manufacturing plants with investment of $20.5 billion (₹1.53 lakh crore).

A Vedanta Foxconn joint venture, IGSS Ventures and ISMC propose to set up electronic chip manufacturing plants with $13.6 billion investment and have sought support of $5.6 billion from the Centre under the ₹76,000 crore Semicon India Programme, a news release from the Ministry of Electronics and IT said. Vedanta and another company, Elest, have submitted applications for setting up display fab projects with an investment of $6.7 billion. The fiscal support sought from the government is nearly $2.7 billion.

"The first round of applications was invited till February 15, for establishment of semiconductor and display fabs," the release read. "Despite aggressive timelines for submission of applications in this greenfield segment of semiconductor and display manufacturing, the scheme has elicited good response."

The Vedanta-Foxconn JV, IGSS Ventures and ISMC have applied to set up 28-nanometer to 65-nanometer semiconductor fabs with capacity of about 120,000 wafers per month.

ISM to coordinate with companies

Vedanta and Elest have sought approvals for setting up generation-8.6 TFT LCD display fab as well as 6th generation display FAB for the manufacture of Amoled display panels that are used in smartphones, the statement said.

SPEL Semiconductor, HCL, Syrma Technology and Valenkani Electronics have registered for semiconductor packaging and Ruttonsha International Rectifier has registered for compound semiconductors. In addition, Terminus Circuits, Trispace Technologies and Curie Microelectronics have submitted applications under the design-linked incentive scheme.

The applicants under the semiconductor and display fab schemes have been issued acknowledgment by the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) that has been set up as an independent institution to spearhead the Semicon India programme.

The ISM will coordinate with the companies that have also reached out to states to provide access to infrastructure.

The ministry said the Indian semiconductor market was worth $15 billion in 2020 and was estimated to reach $63 billion by 2026. India's display panel market is estimated to be about $7 billion and is expected to grow to around $15 billion by 2025.

ET reported on Friday that India was set to extend the window for applications to the semiconductor chip design and manufacturing scheme. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the minister of state for electronics and IT, told that this was being done with an aim to enable a slew of top global semiconductor companies to also submit their proposals.

Officials said the government had been in talks with industry heavyweights such as Intel, Samsung, Global Foundries and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to apply under the scheme and invest in India.

"There is no deadline as such. Conversations with many global leaders are ongoing and so extending the date is certain," said Chandrasekhar. "The government understands that this is a very time-intensive decision and made more so due to travel and physical meeting restrictions (due to the pandemic)."