India fabless semiconductor plans need $10 bln fund
Mint. The ISM is tasked with overseeing semiconductor-related proposals and has industry stalwarts like Vinod Dham and Ajit Minocha on its advisory committee. While proposals for semiconductor chip fabs or assembly plants were being evaluated by the ISM, the government should focus on building the fabless design ecosystem which was a low-hanging fruit for companies here, Vishwanathan added.
Former Niti Aayog chief executive Amitabh Kant had suggested a SIDBI-like structure to aid fabless semiconductor manufacturing, he said. Vishwanathan argued for substantial capital investment, since government funding alone isn't enough to sustain this ecosystem. “For India to be able to become the next destination for semiconductors, two things must happen.
The first is, an abundant supply of patient capital, with sovereign and private capital being their number one priority," he said, noting that fab manufacturing and fabless design needed an equal amount of incentives from the government. As a founder partner of private equity firm Celesta Capital, Vishwanathan observed that many firms seek private equity instead of government funding. “Any company that India wants to attract or initiate domestically has to become a global company to do that.
It has to have free flow of capital from the outside into the country and vice versa," he said. He also put the onus on companies coming to India to have mechanisms for efficient ways of capital convertibility and suggested that they be mindful of the ministry of finance’s requirements, so approvals don’t take a long time. India currently has the design linked incentives or DLI which aims to offer financial incentives as well as design infrastructure support across various stages of
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