In response to the special incentive package for semiconductor fabrication and other micro and nano technology manufacturing, announced last year, seven proposals with an investment of around Rs65,000 crore have been received so far.

The proposals received so far are for manufacturing of a wide variety of products like polysilicon, single and multi-crystalline ingots, wafers, solar cells, solar photovoltaic modules (SPV) liquid crystal display (LCD), integrated circuits-advanced logic / memory / embedded system on chip including assembly, testing and packaging of semiconductor devices.

The investments are will be spread over 10 years. Among the proposals recently received are two large proposals from Reliance Industries Limited for establishing a semiconductor wafer fab with assembly, testing, mark and packaging facility at a total investment of Rs18,521 crores spread 10 years and is expected to employ around 4000 people would at the fabrication and ATMP sites.

The second Reliance project is scheduled to come up in Jamnagr at an investment of Rs11,631 crore, where its petroleum projects are coming up. This facility will manufacture polysilicon, single crystal / multi crystalline ingots, solar grade wafers, SPV modules with a capacity of 1 giga watt. Reliance has says that the Jamnagar facility is expected to create over 11000 direct skilled, semiskilled and unskilled jobs.

The guidelines for operation of the scheme which was announced by the department of Information Technology in September 2007 were drawn up keeping in mind the specific constraints that challenge viability of the semiconductor industry and other high tech industries. Such industries are highly capital intensive and have to deal with constantly changing technology.

 Under the special incentive package scheme, the central government has to provide incentive of 20 per cent capital expenditure during the first 10 years for the units in SEZs and 25 per cent of the capital expenditure in non-SEZ units. Any unit can claim incentives in the form of capital subsidy or equity participation.

L&T files over 100 patents for electrical & electronic products

Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) has announced the following Press Release:

"The Electrical & Electronics Division (FBG) of Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) highlighted its dynamic approach to product innovation, filing over a hundred patent applications on its range of electrical and electronics products for 2007-08. It achieved a significant landmark of filing 101 patent applications across the division with 65 patents accounting for switchgear products followed by 20 patents for medical products, 10 for energy meters and 6 for petroleum dispensing pumps. In addition, EBG has applied for 32 design registrations and 11 trademarks during the year.

The total number of patent applications, filed by EBG, now stands at 345. Out of this, switchgear products have been the major contributors with 234 filings while medical products contributed 58 patent applications. Similarly, till now EBG has to its credit 346 design registration filings and 105 trademark filings.

President (Electrical & Electronics) & Member of the Board, Mr. R N Mukhija, said, "EBG has been at the forefront of developing technology for the next generation products and solutions. The intellectual wealth, created by our engineers, is being ably protected through patents and design registrations by the Intellectual Property Management (IPM) Cell. This is, in turn, creating tremendous value that can be unlocked through self-use and preventing competitors' from infringing on our technology."

The key drivers for EBG's unparalleled success on the IPR front are its design and development strengths and a dedicated talent pool supported by a work environment that encourages initiatives and supports experiment. Mr. Mukhija added, "The engineers, with diverse skill sets, are engaged in developing innovative solutions in an environment conducive for growth and learning. We also have strategic alliances with several leading research organizations, test laboratories and academic institutions to enable us to offer technologically superior products and services and thereby setting new benchmarks in the industry."

For some of its newer products with export potential, EBG has been filing patents overseas as well. For one of its exported switchgear products, the U-POWER ACB, EBG has filed 7 overseas patents which include a US patent grant titled 'Design system of secondary isolating contacts in circuit breakers' and a Chinese patent grant titled 'A Novel Design of Rail Driving Mechanism for draw-out circuit breaker'. Three patents have also been filed in China for protection relays.

For its latest export version of medical products, EBG has filed 3 patents in the USA.

EBG's IPM Cell proactively scans the universe for emerging technology trends and patent search for potential infringements before a patent is filed and gives its report to technologists and design engineers. This proactive approach ensures that none of EBG's products infringe on any competitors' products unknowingly. Once a patent is filed by EBG, the IPM Cell also constantly searches for similar patents being filed by competitors to ensure that nobody infringes or copies its products or features."