Fine print of semiconductor policy needed soon: SemIndia

Bangalore, Jan 12 (UNI) Welcoming the Union Cabinet's in-principle approval of the semiconductor policty, SemIndia Chairman and CEO Vinod Agarwal today urged the Centre to come out with the fine print of the policy soon to attract investments.

He told newspersons here that several multinationals were waiting for the policy document to put their investment plans in place to enable India emerge a chip manufacturer. SemIndia was the first mover, announcing a three billion Dollar investment in setting up a Fab City in Hyderabad. Already the first project, a 100 million Dollar testing and assembly unit was coming up.

Dr Agarwal announced the joining of former Software Technology Parks of India-Bangalore Director B V Naidu as one of the founding team members of the company. Mr Naidu would be the Managing Director of SemIndia Fabcity and Managing Director of SemIndia Systems, a systems and technology company located in the city.

Referring to the debate over concessions, he said India should provide concessions on par, if not better, with other countries such as Israel, Germany and the US. On tax concessions of 25 per cent demanded by the industry, he said such concessions were being provided by these counstries where infrastructure was available. But in the case of India, the lack of infrastructure was quite evident.

The Union Government wanted to include infrastructure costs into the concessions, he added.

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