Decision on IT task force proposals by March: Govt

Addressing the ISAVision Summit 2010, he said that the Centre was currently examining the proposals on a fast track basis to meet the March deadline.

Further, he exhorted the semiconductor sector players to leverage upon the intellectual capital to harness the competitive advantage the country enjoyed in the ICT space to achieve the target of US$400 billion by 2020.

Meanwhile, the State government, which unveiled the Karnataka Semiconductor Policy 2010, whose basic contours were already reported by Deccan Herald on Tuesday, also proposed to set up a Karnataka Fund for Semiconductor Excellence with a corpus of Rs 10 crore. The fund, in an effort to encourage innovation and R&D in chip design, product development, telecom etc., according to the policy, will be available to private companies covering upto 50 per cent of their R&D expenses subject to a limit of Rs 10 lakh per unit. It would be repayable through 10 per cent of the profit annually for a period of ten years. Preference, the policy notes, would be given to fresh engineering graduates by identifying talent through projects submitted in the college and start-up companies.

Preference for new tech

Furthermore, preference would also be given to entrepreneurs engaged in developing new technologies in liquid crystal displays, organic light emitting diodes, plasma display panels and other emerging displays, storage devices, solar cells, photovoltaic and other advanced micro and nano technology products and assembly and testing. A committee, comprising of representatives of VTU, ISA, industry, scientists and financial institutions would be set up to monitor the activities and functioning of the fund. The policy would be in vogue for a period of five years from the date of notification.

Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and State IT & BT Minister Katta Subramanya while formally announcing the policy invited the industry take advantage of the State’s investor friendly policies and help achieve the US$120 billion turnover in semiconductor space as envisaged. They said, under the Semiconductor Policy, the fiscal incentives and concessions as being provided under the Karnataka Industrial Policy 2009-2014 would also be applicable to the sector.