Semiconductor industry keeps chin up

The Union finance minister's proposal to use the existing vehicles of viability gap funding and the India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL) to create a window to provide equity participation and viability gap funding to new ventures in semiconductor manufacturing was praised. The window will be open for three years in order to accelerate investment.

Ar Rm Arun, Vice Chairman, SPEL Semiconductor Ltd, lauded the move to route the funding through IIFCL. He said that the government had finally come out with a decision to give a push to the semiconductor industry.

He said, "A beneficial tax structure, better power tariff structure and low cost of funding would be an encouraging move in attracting more investments and promoting semiconductor manufacturing in the counry.

Asked about the reason for sudden focus on semi conductor manufacturing, Arun said it was natural progression from software development to embedded systems to IC design and to semi conductor manufacturing."ss

He also said that companies realised that semiconductor manufacturing was all about high-end and precision manufacturing and see attractive value proposition.