All the leading global semiconductor firms have evinced interest in the recently announced Rs 76,000-crore incentive scheme for development of semiconductors and display manufacturing ecosystem, minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said.
In an interview with FE, the minister said all the global firms believe that this is the right time to study the Indian opportunity as the country is emerging as a trusted technology partner of the world. He said that the package will give a momentum in building the entire ecosystem for semiconductor space ranging from designing, innovation and manufacturing.
“In terms of the companies that are interested, I can assure you and I say this with all responsibility, every leading global semiconductor company is deeply interested in observing and studying the India opportunity,” Chandrasekhar said. “They believe it is the right time for India. It is like a perfect timing for India given the fact that there is a whole reset of the global value chain, there is an emerging force of India as a trusted technology partner to the world,” he added.
As reported earlier, the scheme has been designed with the aim of enabling the setting up of around 20 companies which are engaged in the entire production and value chain of semiconductors like silicon semiconductor fabs, display fabs, etc over the next six years.
India is already a big player in semiconductor design and the policy will further enable in building an ecosystem for semiconductor manufacturing. “The semiconductor vision and growing electronics opportunity is a narrative that the world now finds very credible, compared to 10 years ago and that is why the global leaders are waking up and taking very serious note of India’s ambitions in semiconductor electronics,” the minister said, adding, in the last two years India has designed over 2,000 integrated circuits and semiconductors.
Chandrasekhar said to promote electronics manufacturing, the government has already unveiled production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes for various sectors including medical electronics, telecom, IT hardware, mobile devices etc. “The electronics ecosystem has now gained a vibrancy and gained the momentum and the semiconductor strategy is riding on that momentum of electronics,” he said.
Asked about requests to increase the quantum of incentives for IT hardware, the minister said the government would do everything to make the scheme successful. “We want to make IT hardware as successful as the mobile device sector. This is our commitment, vision and goal and for that, there are a number of measures we are taking and we will continue to take. We will do everything to make it successful, be it fine-tuning the scheme or some improvements or restructuring, that will be done. Our objective is to be a leader in IT hardware,” he said.
On the issue of import duty cuts on certain electronics products like chargers, PCBA etc, Chandrasekhar said to make sure that manufacturing in India is competitive, the government has engaged with the industry on duty structures, duty issues and duty aberration. “We have made our recommendations to the ministry of finance. There is a whole rationalisation of duties that the industry has asked for. It is clear and obvious that there are some elements of a structure which create some disadvantages vis-à-vis competing with nations like Vietnam, Thailand and China,” he added.