Govt to accept online application from MSMEs, startups under Chips-to-Startup Scheme till 31 Jan 2022

New Delhi, 17 Jan (KNN) The Ministry of Electronics and Information (MeitY) is screening online applications received from MSMEs, startups, academia, research and development under the chips to startup (C2S) programme till 31st January, 2022. 

This INR 76,000 crore production linked incentive (PLI) scheme was approved in December 2021 for the development of semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem in India.

Last year the government had announced the C2S programme targetting to train 85,000 engineers in the area of Very Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) and Embedded System Design. 

It had also said that it would look into the development of 175 Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) and working prototypes of 20 SoCs and IP Core repository over a period of five years.  

“This will be a step towards leapfrogging in the Electronics System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) space by way of inculcating the culture of SoC/System Level Design at bachelors, masters and research level, and act as a catalyst for the growth of startups involved in the fabless design,” the ministry added.

The government invited proposals in three categories – first, design and development of Systems, SoCs, ASICs, Reusable IP Cores; second, development of the application-oriented working prototype of IPs, ASICs, SoCs; and third, Proof-of-Concept oriented research and development of ASICs and Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). 

FPGAs are integrated circuits that can be programmed for specific use after its manufacturing. 

For eligible businesses, up to 50 per cent fiscal support of the the cost of setting up semiconductor fabs (fabrication or manufacturing plants) and display fabs will be covered under the PLI scheme.

The scheme also noted another 30 per cent fiscal support of capital expenditure to approve units setting up of compound semiconductors, silicon photonics, sensors, fabs and semiconductor assembly, testing, marking, and packaging (ATMP), and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) facilities in India. 

Moreover, PLI up to 50 per cent of eligible expenditure and product deployment-linked incentive of 6 per cent – 4 per cent on net sales for five years under the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme was also part of the scheme.