'Announcements on chip fabs soon'

India will soon announce a 40 nanometre (nm) semiconductor fabrication unit and multiple compound fab proposals under the modified semiconductor investment scheme, minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said.

- Gulveen Aulakh

“We will certainly have, very soon, an announcement of a 40nm silicon fab. We will also have multiple compound fab proposals," Chandrasekhar said in an interview. Chips will roll out from the fab within two to three years of the announcement, he added.

“These are not decisions running from election cycle to election cycle. These are decisions for the next decade. We will be in a position this calendar year to take the decision on the 40nm fab, and none of these decisions will be taken in a hurry," he added. The minister did not spell out the identities of the companies that have submitted proposals.

The new proposals come after the government modified its $10 billion financial incentive scheme to support the building of semiconductor, packaging, testing, and allied fabrication units in India, accepting proposals for mature nodes, or above 40nm, without a deadline.