New PLI scheme for IT hardware

New Delhi: The Union government will soon launch an information technology server and IT hardware production linked incentive (PLI) scheme, and also offer additional incentives for manufacturers that incorporate Indian-designed intellectual property into their products, Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Tuesday.

Virtually addressing the VLSI Design Conference 2023 that began here on Tuesday, Chandrasekhar said the government has announced the Future Design Programme, which invests USD 200 million in startups that will design or co-design IP, tools or devices for the next generation of applications in India.

"By 2024, we believe India would have stepped into the semiconductor manufacturing space and catalysed a more domestic design and innovation ecosystem where we are encouraging startups to work with the leading global majors to develop IP, to develop devices either co-owned or owned for which the government has announced Future Design Programme," he said.

"To make sure that these devices and the innovation ecosystem are fully supported by the market, we will soon be launching an IT server and an IT hardware PLI that will be similar to the mobile phone PLI which has been extremely successful. In the IT PLI, we will create additional incentives for those manufacturers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that incorporate Indian-designed IP into their systems, into their products," he said.

Chandrasekhar said, "We are putting government capital to work in actively catalysing the Indian semiconductor ecosystem and working with the industry and the global diaspora to ensure that our ambition of India as a semiconductor nation will be realised very rapidly".