Big Investment in Semiconductors Natural Due to Geopolitics; Innovation,
Design Equally Important, says MoS IT
[ABS News Service/02.03.2022]
The government's roadmap for the semiconductor sector entails big investments due to geopolitical
circumstances but it is giving equal importance to design and innovation,
Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Monday.
Speaking at 35th International VLSI and Embedded Systems Conference,
Chandrasekhar said India's performance during the COVID-19 pandemic has placed
the country among experts in the technology space.
"Our ambitions specifically in the semiconductor
space are very clear. Our ambition and our roadmap to semiconductor space
involves obviously a big investment. It is natural given the geopolitics of the
world in fabs (semiconductor fabrication) but as
importantly as that is the ecosystem around innovation, design and systems.
"We are essentially investing government capital in
creating skill...from the research side to the design engineering and testing
and packaging workforce side," the minister said.
The government has received proposals from five companies
for setting up electronic chip and display
manufacturing plants with investment of Rs 1.53 lakh crore.
Vedanta
Foxconn JV, IGSS Ventures and ISMC propose to set up electronic chip manufacturing plants
with USD 13.6 billion (about Rs 1.02 lakh crore)
investment. They have sought support of USD 5.6 billion (around Rs 42,000 crore) from the Centre under the Rs 76,000 crore Semicon India Programme.
The government is providing financial support of up to 40
per cent for chips above 28 nanometre to 45 nm, and
up to 30 per cent for setting up manufacturing units for 45 nm to 65 nm wafers.
Vedanta and Elest have proposed
to set up display manufacturing units that are used in mobile phones, laptops etc with projected investment of USD 6.7 billion (about Rs 50,000 crore). They have sought support of USD 2.7
billion (around Rs 20,000 crore) from the Centre
under the scheme for setting up of display fabs in India.
The Centre is also providing incentive on chip design,
design infrastructure support, product design linked incentives, among others.
The incentives include reimbursement of up to Rs 30 lakh per application for multi-project wafer
fabrication for design, and 6-4 per cent reimbursement on net sales of designed
semiconductor goods for five years starting financial year 2022-23.
"We in India today through a combination of polices,
leadership vision are at an unprecedented inflection point in terms of growth
and expansion of our technology sector. We have had a very long history of
doing very well in technology services, outsourcing...," Chandrasekhar
said.
He added that India has created unicorns in the startup
segment faster than any other economy in the world.
"If you take that as starting point and take the
Prime Minister's vision of 'techade'
as the next point and look forward, it is clear that we today have runway of
opportunities in the ESDM (electronics system design and manufacturing) space,
in embedded design space and of course in semiconductor space.
"We are investing capital and encouraging
entrepreneurship in startups in the design and innovation ecosystem. It is
clear that our ambitions are real," the minister said.