A consortium of overseas Indians is expected to take a decision on setting up a chip manufacturing facility in India by the end of this year, IT and Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran said.
Venture funds are also a part of the consortium. "We expect a good announcement on chip manufacturing facility in India," he said.
Maran met the consortium, which expressed its willingness to set up a chip manufacturing facility in India, when he visited the facility of Applied Materials in US in June.
Applied Materials provides services and manufacturing technology for semiconductor chip industry. A chip manufacturing facility costs anywhere between $3 to 4 billion.
If the consortium decides to set up a chip manufacturing facility in India, the government would pick up equity stake in the project. A chip fabrication plant would fill an important gap in the supply chain of semiconductor industry in India.
There are many chip design and assembly and testing facilities in India but no fabrication plant.