IT sector gets investment plans worth $25 Bn
By siliconindia   |   Saturday, 15 December 2007, 14:48 IST
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New Delhi: In a helping push to India's efforts to emerge as a hi-tech manufacturing hub, the department of information technology (DIT) has received investment proposals worth over $25 billion from 17 Indian and multinational companies, including Reliance Industries, Tata BP Solar and the U.S. based Solar Semiconductor, reported Economic Times (ET). While investments worth over six billion dollars have already been committed, another $20 billion are in the pipeline. These include India's first LCD panel unit by Videocon at an investment of $1.8 billion; two other proposals for solar cells and photovoltaic cells by Moser Baer; and Titan Energy Systems of $3.2 billion and $1.2 billion respectively. The proposals come in the wake of the semiconductor policy, under which the centre plans to give financial incentives to at least two to three companies that are planning to set up fab units and about eight to ten companies under the eco-system section. "We have already received financial proposals from the three companies. These proposals would now be referred to an appraisal committee, which is expected to give the final approval to them in the next 2-3 months," said a DIT official. The appraisal committee, which was set up to decide on the fiscal incentives for companies comprises officials from DIT, finance and commerce ministries, and experts. Moser Baer already has a photo voltaic cell manufacturing plant in Greater Noida. "We plan to set up two new units - one would be in Tamil Nadu and for the other, we are still to decide the location," said Ratul Puri, Executive Director, Moser Baer. The company expects the units to start production by 2009. "The country's solar cell market is going to see a phenomenal increase from about 50 mega watt at present to 1 giga watt by 2010," said Puri. A Tata BP Solar official told ET that the company has made inquiries in this regard and is interested in the policy but is yet to submit a formal proposal. The semiconductor policy provides incentives for manufacturing units of computer chip units and also eco-system units, which comprise displays, organic LEDs, nanotechnology-related ventures, storage devices, besides solar and photo voltaic cells. As per the policy, the government would give an incentive of up to 20 percent of the capital expenditure to companies seeking to set up fab units. The sop would be applicable for capital expenditure during the first 10 years. The minimum investment required for getting incentives is $550 million for a fab unit and $220 million for manufacturing products like storage devices, micro and nanotechnology products and organic light emitting diodes.

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