CHENNAI: In a bid to increase Tamil Nadu’s electronics industry output to USD 100 billion by 2025, Chief Minister Edapaddi K Palaniswami on Monday unveiled the Tamil Nadu Electronics and Hardware Manufacturing Policy.
The policy is being launched to provide adequate infrastructure and supporting ecosystem to Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) companies and attract global majors to invest in Tamil Nadu.
With the goal of contributing 25 per cent of India’s total electronic exports by 2025, the new policy plans to develop the semiconductor fabrication (FAB) industry, where devices such as Integrated Circuits (IC) chips are manufactured, in Tamil Nadu. It is learnt that the state is planning to attract at least two major FAB investments in the next three years.
The policy also plans to incentivize homegrown startups in the ESDM sector both in the component and original equipment product manufacturing subsectors. It also underlines skill training for more than 1,00,000 people (semi-skilled and skilled) by 2024 to meet the incremental human resource requirement projected by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) for Tamil Nadu in the Electronics and Hardware Manufacturing sector.
Aligned to the National Policy of Electronics 2019, the state will provide special support for developing core competencies in Semiconductor fabrication (FAB), Assembly, Test, Marking and Packaging (ATMP); Fabless Chip Design; Medical Electronics; Automotive, Aerospace and Aviation Electronics; Power Electronics for Mobility and Telecom/ Communication Equipment.
The state will also provide support to Consumer Electronics and Appliances; Strategic Electronics; Renewable Energy Electronics; Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS); Electronic Components Manufacturing; Electronics Test and Calibration Labs and Electronics Product Design and IP registration.
Incentives are being offered to units in the electronic manufacturing industry by the state government for investments made from January 1, 2020. The incentives will be based on the districts where the investment takes place. These districts have been classified into three categories. As per the classification, Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Chengalpet fall come under the first classification followed by Coimbatore, Cuddalore, Erode, Karur, Krishnagiri, Namakkal, Ranipet, Salem, Tiruchirapalli, Tirupattur, Tiruppur, The Nilgiris, and Vellore.
The third level classification include Dharmapuri, Madurai, Theni, Dindigul, Sivagangai, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Kanniyakumari, Pudukottai, Ariyalur, Perambulur, Tenkasi, Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Kallakurichi, Viluppuram, Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam and Tiruvannamalai.
Meanwhile, the incentives for large (Rs 200 crore to Rs 500 crore and generating jobs for 500 individuals) and mega industries (Rs 500 crore and above and generating jobs to 2,000 individuals) shall be sanctioned by the industries department. The structured package shall be sanctioned as per the recommendation of the Inter Departmental Committee (IDC) convened by the industries department and the related incentives will be disbursed by SIPCOT.
The single window facilitation for large and mega industries shall be done by the Guidance department (https://investingintamilnadu.com/) through its single window portal (https://www.easybusiness.tn.gov.in/).
The single window facilitation for MSME sector shall be done by the Commissioner of Industries and Commerce & District Industries Centre.
The state is also planning to establish a statewide Hardware Product Innovation Network consisting of several standalone centres operating in a hub-and-spoke model. The network shall include a Mega Electropreneur Centre (MEC), that will be setup by ELCOT and established in the form of a Centre of Excellence for Hardware Products and Ventures to facilitate easy access and to make it practical to build a robust ecosystem for startups and entrepreneurs. This CoE shall include a fully self-contained facility to support end-to-end design, development, testing and certification of innovative hardware products.
As an extension of this central node, the state will establish Mini Electropreneur Centre (MiEC) which shall be set up by ELCOT in each of the existing and future ELCOSEZs to scale up the footprint of innovation activities to further boost the generation of new hardware and electronics systems, products and solutions. These innovations shall be centred around solving local challenges sourced from the industry, society, or government and shall be undertaken by students in the major boost to skills and competencies development.
The eight existing ELCOSEZs are Sholinganallur in Chennai, Vilankurichi in Coimbatore, Ilandhaikulam in Madurai, Vadapalanji in Madurai, Navalpattu in Tiruchirappalli, Gangaikondan in Tirunelveli, Jagirammapalayam in Salem and
Viswanathapuram in Hosur.