Government mulls new scheme to fund electronics companies developing new technologies

NEW DELHI: Government is floating Expression of Interest to select a financial institution for creating a special fund to provide risk capital to companies developing new technologies in areas of electronics, nano- electronics and Information Technology, Lok Sabha was informed today.

The Electronics Development Fund (EDF) would fund companies for developing new technologies and Expression of Interest is being floated to select the financial institution for this purpose, Telecom and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said during question hour.

He said proposals for electronics manufacturing have been received from global and domestic companies involving investment of nearly Rs 20,825 crore under the Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS).

These proposals would cover manufacturing in various verticals of electronics including automotive electronics, consumer electronics, mobile devices, telecom, IT hardware, medical electronics, strategic electronics and electronics components.

Prasad said M-SIPS provides financial incentives to offset disability and attract investments in the electronics hardware manufacturing including chip manufacturing. It also provides subsidy for investments in capital expenditure -- 20 per cent for investments in Special Economic Zones and 25 per cent in non-SEZs.

Electronics Manufacturing Clusters scheme provides financial assistance for creating world-class infrastructure for electronics manufacturing units.

Government has also accorded final approval to two greenfield electronics manufacturing clusters and in-principle approval to 14 greenfield electronics manufacturing clusters and two common facility centres in brownfield cluster.

Prasad said about 3,000 Ph.Ds are proposed to be supported by the Electronics System Design and Manufacturing and IT/IT-enabled services sector, while another scheme for skill development of 90,000 persons in the sector has also been approved.