India will provide more incentives for local chip and display manufacturing

CTOnews.com, Sept. 21 (Reuters)-the Indian government on Wednesday increased financial support for new semiconductor facilities to cover 50 per cent of project costs and said it would lift the maximum investment allowed for display manufacturing to boost local production.

The announcement comes as the Indian government seeks to attract more big investment under a $10 billion chip and display production incentive scheme aimed at making India a key player in the global supply chain.

"based on discussions with potential investors, work on the construction of the first semiconductor facility is expected to begin soon," the government statement said on Wednesday.

The Indian government had previously agreed to bear 30 to 50 per cent of the cost of building new display and chip factories. The government said on Wednesday that it would also pay 50 per cent of the capital expenditure required to set up semiconductor packaging facilities.

Last week, oil and metals conglomerate Vedanta and Taiwan's Foxconn signed an agreement with the Indian state of Gujarat to invest $19.5 billion to build semiconductor and display plants in the west, CTOnews.com learned.

Vedanta is the third company to announce a chip plant in India after international consortium ISMC and Singapore-based IGSS Ventures, the first two companies in the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.