India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) is seeking applications from 100 companies, startups and micro, small and medium Enterprises (MSMEs), as part of its design linked incentive (DLI) scheme.

The plan comes hot on the heels of the $10 billion production linked incentive (PLI) scheme to attract chip makers to set up fabs and factories in the country.

The DLI scheme focuses on three components - chip design infrastructure support, product design linked incentives and deployment linked incentives.

Figure 1: Cash in your chips: India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is seeking applications from 100 companies as part of its design linked incentive scheme.
(Source: Unsplash)

Financial incentives and design infrastructure support to the approved applicants will run for over five years, says the statement issued by Meity.

The Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) will serve as the central agency implementing the scheme. C-DAC will also set up the India Chip Center to host design infrastructure and facilitate access to selected companies.

The chips are down

The government will reimburse up to 50% of eligible expenditure subject to a ceiling of INR150 million ($2 million) per application. This benefit is part of the product design linked incentive component.

An incentive of 6% to 4% of net sales turnover over five years subject to a ceiling of INR300 million ($4 million) per application will be given to selected applicants whose products are deployed in electronic products.

A portal, www.chips-dli.gov.in, has been set up for prospective applicants to learn more about the scheme and apply between January 1, 2022 until December 31, 2024.

Interested in India? Check out our dedicated content channel here on
Light Reading.

The Indian government wants to build a vibrant chip ecosystem in the country. Globally there is a massive chip shortage and several nations, including China, are trying to reduce their dependence on the global supply chains for chips.

In the past, the administration has not succeeded in offering incentives to companies to set up units here. However, this is the first time it has gone all out in providing incentives and building a domestic ecosystem for the semiconductor industry.

Related posts:

— Gagandeep Kaur, contributing editor, special to Light Reading