In a bid to persuade major global semiconductor firms like Intel and TSMC to set up their fabrication units in India, the government may come out with another tranche of capital subsidy in two-three years. The quantum of the outlay will be decided based on the kind of applications received.

So far, the government has announced a Rs 76,000-crore incentive scheme to promote semiconductor manufacturing in the country.

“Consuming $10 billion will take time, but once we succeed in this, we would go much bigger,” minister of electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw told FE. He said all the serious players, global as well as Indian, are in active discussions with the government to participate in the country’s “semiconductor dream”.

The minister said work is on track to come out with a made-in-India chipset by 2024. “By next year, this time, we would have a proper fab agreement done,” Vaishnaw said. The pain points raised by the industry around supply chain issues are being addressed.

Till now, five applications have been received for setting up silicon and display fabs in the country. Names of the selected companies will be announced in five to eight months. But since big global companies have so far not come on board, the government is trying to address the bottlenecks around the semiconductor ecosystem while holding talks with leading companies.

The minister said both global and Indian firms are exploring partnerships to set up fabrication units in India.

As per sources, among the Indian firms, Reliance Industries and Tata Group have held a few round of discussions with the ministry of electronics and IT, but so far nothing concrete has emerged.

The government is holding a three-day semiconductor conference, wherein leading players like Intel, TSMC, Micron Technology, Western Digital, Samsung and Qualcomm are participating. The main focus of the conference is to convey India’s seriousness towards semiconductor manufacturing while also listening to requirements of the industry.

As part of the scheme, the government will extend financial support of up to 50% of the project cost for at least two semiconductor and two display fabs, for a minimum of six years. For others, like compound semiconductors and sensor fabs, fiscal support of 30% will be offered.

Industry experts said the current global chip shortage has proved that the country needs to build fabrication capacity, and higher flexibility in government policy would yield better results as the industry would get time to learn, seek investments, and build up global units.

They said when it comes to the semiconductor value chain, India has some footprint in several critical steps, like IP, design solutions and services and systems manufacturing. This is a good foundation, but to become a semiconductor nation, India must capture a broader swathe of the semiconductor value chain. This means moving beyond IP and design into additional areas of focus within semiconductor manufacturing, including wafer fabrication package and test.

The government is working parallelly to sort out issues of supply chain and fabrication.

https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/semiconductor-conference-govt-says-work-on-track-to-bring-out-made-in-india-chipset-by-2024/2508392/