Union Cabinet approves scheme for designing, manufacturing semiconductor chips in India

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Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a budget of Rs 76,000 crore for designing and manufacturing semiconductor chips in India.

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said the cabinet sanctioned Rs76,000 crore for the ambitious project, titled Programme for Development of Semiconductors and Display Manufacturing Ecosystem, to be spent over a span of six years.

According to a statement by the government, the project will have a multiplier effect across different sectors and will help in deeper integration to the global value chain.

It would contribute significantly towards achieving USD 5 trillion dollar economy and USD 5 trillion GDP (gross domestic product) by 2025.

Elaborating on the scheme, Union minister for Telecom and Information Technology (IT) Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken a historic decision in the field of Electronics in which the development of a complete ecosystem could take place within the country including design, fabrication, testing and packaging. It would take the investment of Rs 76,000 crore. Today we have reached USD75 billion in electronics manufacturing in 7 years. With the pace that we are moving at, in the next 6 years, we will reach USD300 billion in electronics manufacturing.”

Apart from this union I&B minister said that Cabinet has approved reimbursement of Rs 1,300 crore on digital transactions using UPI and Rupay debit cards.

“A scheme has been approved to provide incentives to encourage digital transactions through RuPay Debit Card and BHIM UPI of small amounts. It will incur an expense of around Rs 1,300 crore,” Thakur said.