Starting today, the Government of India has reopened the window for companies, consortia, and joint ventures keen to make semiconductors in the country to avail of government incentives.
The decision to invite new applications for setting up semiconductor fabs and display fabs has been made under the Modified Semicon India Programme.
This announcement came a day after reports that the Indian government was likely to inform the joint venture proposal between Vedanta and Taiwan's Foxconn that it won't get government incentives to make 28-nanometer chips.
According to Indian media reports, the new incentive scheme provides the Vedanta Foxconn JV a fresh chance and it is expected to reapply under the modified semiconductor scheme.
Explaining the rationale behind this move, the Indian Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said in a tweet that the new proposal was brought since the previous one in January 2022 was closed before the policy was improved to encourage the setting up of mature semiconductor manufacturing nodes with equal incentives.
We expect to approve multiple semicon packaging and fab proposals, he added.
Application open till December 2024
All applicants who had applied under earlier schemes are allowed to submit applications under the modified scheme after incorporating suitable modifications in their proposals.
The application window for the modified programme and Design Linked Incentive Scheme is open till December 2024.
India Semiconductor Mission - the designated nodal agency responsible for implementing the programme will oversee the application process.
Under the Modified Programme, a financial incentive of 50 per cent of the project cost is available for setting up Semiconductor Fabs in India of any node (including mature nodes).
Similarly, a financial incentive of 50 per cent of the project cost is available for setting up Display Fabs of specified technologies in India.
In the old scheme, the incentives varied based on wafer node size, the Economic Times reported.
The government initiated the Semicon India Programme in December 2021, allocating US$10 billion (S$13.5 billion) for the advancement of the semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem within the country.
