India?s semiconductor manufacturing hub, Fab City, in Hyderabad finally seems to be taking off with a total committed investment of $7 billion. In addition to it, the Centre has also given an in-principle approval for five projects that comes close to $1 billion.
?All these investments are for 10 years,? Union minister of state for commerce Jairam Ramesh said while delivering the inaugural address at the two-day India Semiconductor Association Vision Summit on Monday.
Among the confirmed investments in Fab City, Ramesh said SEM India committed to invest $3 billion in an allotted area of 100 acres, while Nano-Tech Silicon India is injecting in $2 billion on 50 acres, Solar Semiconductors $1 billion in setting up their facility on 50 acres followed by Titan Energy Systems pumping in $750 million on 50 acres in Fab City. Three other companies that received approval were Excel Telecom and Energy for an investment of $75 million on 50 acres, KSK Energy Ventures investing $70 million in establishing operations on 50 acres and Embedded IT Solutions investing $5 million on the allotted 10 acres in Fab City, he said. The five projects that received in-principle approval from the government to invest in Fab City are Chandradeep Solar, Neotech Solutions, Photon Energy Systems, Surana Ventures and Ramterra Solar. Put together, these five projects would cover a total investment of around $800 million and require an area of 63 acres.
Meanwhile, Ramesh said Videocon, with a proposed investment of $250 million and Hindustan Semiconductor with $1 billion were scouting for locations to set up their facilities and their proposals were under consideration. Moser Baer identified Sriperumbadur near Chennai as its location for setting up the $2-billion centre.
Earlier, Ramesh said three private domains – telecom, personal computer and automotive industries – would drive the semiconductor industry in the country, while from the public domain energy and medical electronics would be the key drivers. He said with around 7 million mobile phones being sold per month, of which 45% were produced in the domestic market, he said the mobile phone equipment industry has a huge potential to drive the semiconductor industry.