The government is working on a scheme to attarct semiconductor companies in India. The world is presently facing shortage of semiconductor across many electronic verticals
Tata, one of the biggest corporate houses of India, might be gearing up to enter the semiconductor space in the country. The corporate house might enter the vertical via the Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) route.
Raja Manickam, the founder of Tessolve Semiconductors, has joined Tata as CEO of its OSAT unit. Manickam is known to be the brains behind Tessolve Semiconductors. He had founded the same in the year 2003. It was in 2016 that the company was acquired by Hero Electronix.
It is not clear whether Manicakan would remain to be a part of the statup or would entirely focus on Tata’s OSAT unit. It is worth mentioning here that Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran is also a part of an empowered committee that was setup by the government of India for the development of the semiconductor industry.
We have seen a visiting card with Manickam’s name as CEO TATA OSAT. Emails and phone calls made to Manickam or Tata Electronics went answered. It might make a lot of sense for Tata’s to start with the OSAT space as this vertical of semiconductors is less capital expensive and at the same time more rewarding in terms of employment generation.
We had earlier reported that the yet to be launched semiconductor policy might be a little inclined towards encouraging and attracting the global fabless players in the country, and this is exactly where there would be space generated for setting up of ATMP and OSAT units in India.
The government of India has reached mature stages of finalising the semiconductor policy it wants to launch and implement in India. Sources close to the government of India told Electronics For You Network that the focus of the policy would be around attracting fabless heavyweights to set shop in India.
“There are strong chances that the government will roll out the finalized policy within three months from now. The policy, at the moment, looks inclined towards attracting fabless companies,” the gentleman said.
He added, “Fabless companies are more like Apple who get their products manufactured by third parties but hold the right to choose where to sell the same.”
There is also news of ATMPs being set up in India doing the rounds of media houses. The mixed approach of having a fabless ecosystem and setting up ATMP units might work in favour of the country as both these verticals of semiconductor manufacturing requires less funds and infrastructure but are able to generate more jobs.
The country already has a PLI in existence that promises to reward such ATM units with incentives based on production. Dubbed Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS), the scheme was launched in 2020, and promises financial incentive of 25 per cent on capital expenditure for the identified list of electronic goods, i.e., electronic components, semiconductor/ display fabrication units, ATMP units, specialized sub-assemblies and capital goods for manufacture of aforesaid goods.
