New Delhi, January 4 (IANS). The Central Government has approved 24 new chip design projects under the Design Linked Incentive Scheme (DLI) to strengthen the Indian semiconductor i.e. chip making industry. These projects are in areas like video surveillance, drone detection, energy meter, microprocessor, satellite communication, broadband and IoT system-on-chips (SoC). This information has been shared in an official statement released on Sunday.
Additionally, 95 companies have been given access to industry-level electronic design automation (EDA) tools, the statement said. This will reduce the expenses of chip design startups and they will get better equipment.
Semiconductor chip design is the most value-adding part of the chip manufacturing process. It contributes 50 per cent to the supply chain and 30-35 per cent to global semiconductor sales through the fabless segment.
The statement said that Design Linked Incentive (DLI) supported schemes are progressing rapidly. So far, 16 tap-outs, 6 ASIC chips, 10 patents and more than 1,000 engineers have been covered under the scheme. Besides, private investment has also increased three times.
The DLI scheme is being run by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The budget of this scheme is Rs 76,000 crore. The scheme also supports semiconductor and display manufacturing as well as chip design systems.
DLI scheme provides complete assistance to startups and MSMEs from design to product manufacturing. The objective of the scheme is to address the shortcomings in India’s domestic semiconductor design industry. Its aim is to make the Indian semiconductor industry strong and self-reliant.
Apart from this, through the Chips to Startup (C2S) program, 85,000 engineers, masters and PhD level students are being prepared in educational institutions across the country, who will gain expertise in chip design.
The statement said that without a strong ‘fabless capability’ i.e. ‘capability with its own design and technology’, the country remains dependent on foreign technology. In such a situation, with this scheme, India will be able to become self-reliant in its technical knowledge and production, imports will be reduced and technological leadership will be achieved in the future.
–IANS
DBP/ABM