CHENNAI: A team of officials, according to the daily, from Intel are currently touring India scouting for a suitable location to house the manufacturing unit. “Intel is looking at a chip manufacturing or an assembling unit in India. The team from Intel is visiting various locations in the country including Chennai,” the daily quoted a source as saying. The facility, once set up, will provide employment to over 1,000 professionals. It will come up in about 100 acres of land for which the officials have started scouting for suitable location. However, when contacted, Intel spokesperson declined to comment on the development. If the Intel investment fructifies, it would provide a major boost to the Indian hardware sector, which has been trailing the very successful software model. It will also be the single largest foreign direct investment into the hardware sector. “An investment from the chip major will put India on the global hardware map. It would result in other leading hardware firms setting up base in India,” the daily quoted the source. There has been reports in the international media that Intel has been planning to set up chip fabrication plant in India. Earlier in the year, Mr Craig Barrett, chief executive of the company, had suggested that an Indian fabrication unit might be on the drawing boards. “It should come as no surprise that we export our manufacturing operations to areas where there is surplus skill, such as India,” he was quoted saying in the international media. The reports said that Intel executives declined to comment further on the issue. They had also said that India had pipped China and Australia for the proposed manufacturing facility. According to industry analysts, a full-fledged chip fabrication unit would require an investment approximately of $2 billion. Intel is currently upgrading one of its facilities in the US which could result in an unit being set up in India. Intel currently has India Development Centre, a design centre in Bangalore. The centre employs over 1,000 engineers directly and indirectly and is currently expanding. It is aimed at designing and developing software solutions which are highly cost-effective. The development centre is also engaged in high-end, 32-bit Intel architecture microprocessor design and development for servers and large computers. (Courtesy: Financial Express)