The tie-up between Adani Group and Israel-based Tower Semiconductor for setting up a Rs 83,947 crore semiconductor manufacturing project in Maharashtra, will get operationalised only after the ministry of IT and Electronics (Meity) approves it and increases the subsidy outlay for semiconductor incentive scheme, from the current Rs 76,000-crore, officials said.
The companies have submitted a joint project to manufacture legacy chips using 65 nm technology, which will cater to segments such as automotive, electric vehicles, drones, smartphones, modems, etc, according to people in the know.
Once approved, the Adani-Tower project would be the second such chip manufacturing project in the country. This is Tower’s second attempt to set up a semiconductor manufacturing unit in the country.
In 2020, Tower had tied up with ISMC to set up a fab unit in the country and had submitted an application to the India Semiconductor Mission. However, with the changes in the scheme structure and incentives by the government later, the companies were expected to jointly re-submit a proposal to the government. Tower later terminated the agreement with ISMC and submitted a fresh proposal.
As per the details shared by the Maharashtra government, the Adani-Tower chip unit is coming up in Taloja MIDC, Panvel and is expected to have a production capacity of 40,000 wafers in the first phase, and 80,000 wafers in the second. The same is expected to generate over 5,000 jobs.
Under the Rs 76,000-crore semiconductor incentive scheme, the government has so far approved five chip projects worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore. The projects include Micron’s Rs 22,516 crore ATMP project in Sanand, Tata group-Powerchip Semiconductor (PSMC) Rs 91,000 crore semiconductor fabrication plant in Dholera, Tata’s Rs 27,000 crore ATMP unit in Assam, CG Power’s Rs 7,600 crore ATMP unit in Sanand, and Kaynes’ Rs 3,300 crore OSAT unit in Sanand.
As per the incentive scheme for development of semiconductors and display manufacturing ecosystem, the central government provides a fiscal support of 50% of the project cost. Based on the projects approved so far, the government is left with about Rs 10,000 crore under the scheme, and given the need to develop the semiconductor ecosystem and attract more global players, it is looking at increasing the outlay of the scheme, an official said.
From: financialexpress
Financial News
