Photo: Ramesh Sharma

PLANS FOR INDIA: Intel Corporation chairman Craig Barrett at a press conference in New Delhi on Friday.

New Delhi: Global microprocessor giant Intel has said it is still open to the idea of setting up an Advanced Testing and Manufacturing (ATM) unit in India and is awaiting the Government's proposed semiconductor policy, which is expected to offer a host of incentives.

"For the last ten years, we have been asked this question on our India plans. It is still an open issue. We are eagerly awaiting the Government's incentive package [under the Semiconductor Policy] and we had extensive discussion with the Government on this. We are awaiting the final set of rules and regulations and will respond quickly once we get the policy," Craig Barrett, Chairman, Intel, told reporters here on Friday.

Mr. Barrett's remarks come close on the heels of the recent announcement by Information and Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran that the IT department would soon seek the Cabinet's approval for a comprehensive policy for encouraging the semiconductor industry inclusive of incentives and special packages.

Mr. Barrett is on his eighth visit to the country.

Hot topic

Although he did not commit on the ATM unit, which falls well short of a full-fledged chip manufacturing plant such as Intel has in many other countries, Mr. Barrett's statement could scotch rumours that Intel had lost interest in the project.

The issue has been of late a hot topic of discussion within the company with regards to its future growth.

As part of the policy, the Government could consider providing viability gap funding for setting up semiconductor wafer fabrication units, flat panel displays and other storage devices.

Imports

The electronics components and final goods consumption was projected to touch $ 350 billion by 2015 and the country would need to import more than $ 40 billion semiconductor components by then, according to industry estimation.

Intel's arch rival and U.S. chipmaker AMD has also signed up to play a major role in the country's first chip fabrication factory (or fab) worth $3 billion, backed by a consortium of Indian businessmen.

Mr. Barrett also sought clear and early regulation on the spectrum for commercial roll-out of Wi-Max — a platform to offer communication and information facilities to people. WiMAX is a standards-based wireless technology that provides high-throughput broadband connections over long distances.

He preferred Wi-Max to another version of the wireless broadband technology Wi-Fi, saying the former offers long range of wireless connectivity while Wi-Fi's connectivity range is less.

He expressed satisfaction over the Government's sensitisation to the problem. — PTI

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