The Cabinet on Wednesday has approved the comprehensive programme for the development of a sustainable semiconductor and display ecosystem to position India as the global hub for electronics manufacturing with semiconductors as the foundational building block.
The programme aims to provide attractive incentive support to companies/consortia engaged in Silicon Semiconductor Fabs, Display Fabs, Compound Semiconductors/Silicon Photonics/Sensors Fabs, Semiconductor Packaging and Semiconductor Design.
The scheme envisages investment of around ₹76,000 crore in semiconductor production over the next five-six years, the government said, adding that the government has announced incentives for every part of the supply chain, including electronic components and sub-assemblies, and finished goods.
Incentive support to the tune of ₹55,392 crore ($7.5 billion) has already been approved under PLI for large scale electronics manufacturing, PLI for IT hardware, SPECS scheme and modified electronics manufacturing clusters (EMC 2.0) scheme.
PLI incentives for allied sectors
In addition, PLI incentives to the quantum of ₹98,000 crore ($13 billion) are approved for allied sectors comprising of ACC battery, auto components, telecom and networking products, solar PV modules and white goods.
So in total, the government has committed support of ₹2.30 lakh crore ($30 billion).
The scheme for setting up semiconductor fabs and display fabs in India will extend fiscal support of up to 50 per cent of project cost on a pari-passu basis to applicants who are found eligible and have the technology as well as capacity to execute such highly capital intensive and resource incentive projects.
The government will also work closely with the State governments to establish high-tech clusters with requisite infrastructure in terms of land, semiconductor grade water, high-quality power, logistics and research ecosystem to approve applications for setting up at least two greenfield semiconductor fabs and two display fabs in the country, the government said.
SCL modernisation
The Cabinet has also approved the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to take steps to modernise and commercialise the semiconductor laboratory. MeitY will explore the possibility for the joint venture of Semi-conductor Laboratory (SCL) with a commercial fab partner to update the brownfield fab facility, it added.
