Govt may clear semiconductor unit proposals in next 30-60 days: MoS IT

The government is likely to start approving proposals to set up electronic chip and display manufacturing plants in the country in next 30-60 days, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Wednesday.

Speaking at IESA Vision Summit, Chandrasekhar said there has been a tremendous progress in the development of the semiconductor ecosystem in the country in the last 8-9 months.

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, ISMC propose to set up electronic chip manufacturing plants with USD 13.6 billion investment and have sought support of USD 5.6 billion from the Centre under the Rs 76,000 crore Semicon India Programme.

"Over the next couple of months, I think over next 30 to 60 days... Government of India and India Semiconductor Mission will be rolling out those proposals that have been scrutinized and that have passed the investment," Chandrasekhar said in his virtual address at the summit.

He said a great deal of interest is there in the industry and there are several proposals ranging from investment in wafer fabrication plants to silicon compounds to packaging and testing.

"State governments have shown some tremendous amount of alacrity. State governments like Gujarat, Karnataka have shown tremendous proactive response to looking at this very new opportunity, an opportunity for growth, and job creation, investments and innovation," Chandrasekhar said.

Vedanta Foxconn JV has announced plans to set up an electronic chip manufacturing unit in Gujarat. He said there is significant investment required in the semiconductor space and the government is looking at this sector as a long game.

"This year alone, we will cross over USD 15 billion of exports where at one point we were having zero exports in 2014. Our target for electronics as an overall sector is USD 300 billion of manufacturing by 2025 and exports of USD 120 billion," Chandrasekhar said.

Citing a study, India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) Chairman Vivek Tyagi said India will consume roughly USD 27 billion orth semiconductors in 2022.

"This consumption of semiconductors will grow to roughly USD 70 billion by 2026. It sounds like a big market but only 10 per cent of those USD 27 billion semiconductors were actually procured in India. That's a cause of concern and as an IESA and industry we all need to work to improve the situation. This can be improved if we focus on electronics system design and manufacturing in India," Tyagi said.

He said the government's incentives have given a push to the electronics sector but most of the products are getting assembled in India.

"Once the products get designed here...there will be a different level of value addition that will happen in the country ," Tyagi said.

He said before the start of semiconductor manufacturing there is a strong case of assembly and testing of electronic chips in India.