As the center notifies the new semiconductor policy and with the recent approval of the production linked incentive (PIL) scheme for the semiconductor and display board production in the country, nearly a dozen semiconductor manufacturers are expected to start setting up local factories in the country and begin the production in next 2-3 years said Ashwini Vaishnaw, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, said in an interview.
The Indian government will soon start taking applications under the PIL schemes from January. “The response has been very good. All the big players are in talks with Indian partners and many want to come directly to set up their units here,” Vaishnaw said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. He added, “In next 2-3 years’ time frame, we see at least 10-12 semiconductors going into production,” Vaishnaw said. He also said that a minimum of 50-60 designing companies would have started designing the products in the time frame.
The government will be providing nearly 50% of the cost for setting up two semiconductors and two display fabs units. It will further support them through the EMC2.0 scheme, demand aggregation, support for R&D, and provide skill development & training programmes.
Last week, the government also brought a $10-billion package to incentivise companies to set up production in India. This will be spread over six years to boost chip production.
In its gazette notification, the government said that the scheme aims to attract investments for setting up Compound Semiconductors/Silicon Photonics (SiPh)/Sensors including MEMS, Fabs and Semiconductor ATMP/OSAT facilities in the country to strengthen the electronics manufacturing ecosystem and help establish a trusted electronics value chain in the areas of application of these fabrication and packaging technologies.
“The response has been very good. All the big players are in talks with Indian partners, and many want to come directly to set up their units here. Almost all big ones are talking to us,” Vaishnaw added.
