Government reconstitutes panel on FAB projects

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet today approved the reconstitution of the empowered committee on setting up of Semiconductor Wafer Fabrication (FAB) projects, with NITI Aayog member V K Saraswat as the Chairman.

The committee was set up in 2011 to identify technology and investors and to recommend incentives to be provided for setting up two FAB facilities. The panel had submitted its recommendations to the government, based on which two projects were cleared.

Besides Saraswat, other members of the reconstituted committee include K Radhakrishnan, former Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation; Secretary, Department of Expenditure; Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion; M J Zarabi, former CMD, Semiconductor Complex Ltd; Narendra Krishna Karmarkar, Visiting Professor, IIT-Bombay and Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology as Member Convener.

An official statement said the empowered committee may co-opt any other experts.

Based on the earlier recommendations of the committee, the Union Cabinet had accorded approval for establishing two FAB manufacturing facilities by two consortia -- one led by Jaiprakash Associates Ltd along with IBM (USA) and Tower Jazz (Israel) and the other led by HSMC Technologies India Pvt. Ltd. along with ST Microelectronics (France/Italy) and M/s Silterra (Malaysia).

Further to the Cabinet decision, letters of intent had been issued to the two consortia on March 19, 2014 for setting up FAB facilities in India, the statement said.

The setting up of FAB units is a critical pillar required to promote Electronics System Design and manufacturing in India which will stimulate the flow of capital and technology.

Besides, they will create employment opportunities, help higher value addition in the electronic products manufactured, reduce dependence on imports and lead to innovation.