Window to apply for chip, fab units under ISM set to reopen

The government has reopened the window for filing applications to set up semiconductor and display fabrication units and seek incentives under the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM).

Applicants, both existing and new, can submit proposals starting Thursday, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said on Wednesday.

The window will remain open till appropriate resources are there and good quality applications keep coming in, minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar told ET. There is no first-come-first-served policy now, he said.

"The earlier window was open only for 45 days ... If multiple people or companies want to apply or reapply to set up these units and seek incentives, they can do so," Chandrasekhar said.

Earlier, the government had invited applications between January 1 and February 14 last year. The IT ministry had then received proposals from a Vedanta-Foxconn joint venture, Next Orbit Ventures in partnership with Israel's Tower Semiconductor and Singapore-based IGSS Ventures.

The ISM is now also set to allow applicants to send proposals to build units for the manufacture of mature nodes of 40 nm and above, Chandrasekhar said. That the government would also be open to the idea of increasing the overall incentive under the ISM, he said.

"If it turns out there is more money or capital required, we will be open to that. The due process then will have to be followed, of going to the union Cabinet to seek the requisite approvals," he said.

The government hopes that with the window being reopened, there would be renewed interest from memory chip makers, packaging units, processors and compound semiconductor fabrication units.

In December 2021, the government had announced an incentive scheme of ₹76,000 crore to encourage the setting up of a semiconductor manufacturing and fabrication ecosystem in India. While initially the scheme proposed to give incentives depending on the technology being brought into the country, it was revised in October last year to give a flat 50% of the total cost of the project as incentive to all players, irrespective of the technology and the nature of the nodes the applicant proposed to set up.