Chennai: Indian states are almost at war with each other in a bid to grab the maximum investments from the semiconductor industry. Interestingly, the two communist states of West Bengal and Kerala, and even Tamil Nadu vied with each other to attract semiconductor manufacturers at the 20th International Conference on VLSI design and embedded systems held recently in Bangalore.

Arguing his state's case at the panel discussion, IT minister, government of West Bengal Dr Debesh Das he said, "West Bengal is amongst the most attractive destinations for investment for the semiconductor sector. With the India design centre coming up in Salt Lake city, the state government is taking necessary initiatives to ensure the momentum is not lost."

According to him the state government's initiatives are: (a) Provision for research grants in the forthcoming state budget (b) New projects coming up in the state which will add few millions of sq.ft. of quality infrastructure across the state (c) Close collaboration with IIT-Kharagpur to ensure the ecosystem is built (d) Space to be allocated in the IT parks exclusively for start-ups and product companies and (e) State to go one step further and provide necessary software licenses to such companies since they need significant investment which early stage companies cannot afford among many things that the state is doing to make it conducive for semiconductor companies to set up in the state.

According to J Parthasarathy, director, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) Bangalore, "Our focus is on incubation which is fetching results already. One of the five companies that are being incubated in the centre has just received $2 million in funding. We are also talking to Singapore and Israel universities for support and collaboration."

In his presentation, C Umashankar, managing director, Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) highlighted Chennai's emergence as the manufacturing hub and more specifically in the electronic manufacturing arena and the fact that Chennai has been found to be 11 per cent more cost-effective to do business than Shenzen in China.

He pointed that the momentum is already there and the state government is leaving no stone unturned in its effort to provide a seamless and quick support to the interested companies. According to him for every MoU being signed there are at least three more in the pipeline and there will be a greenfield airport project coming up to further add impetus to development.

He said Tamil Nadu, particularly Chennai, are the talent source for the knowledge industry and that employability of its graduates is among the highest at 40 per cent to 50 per cent. The state government is imparting training in soft skills to improve this percentage further. He also mentioned that the state is promoting seven Tier II cities for investment and that the ecosystem is in place in each of these centres to make it attractive for investments.

While VLSI currently contributes only 8 per cent to the exports out of Chennai, he hoped the percentage would grow better in the coming years. "The state's single window clearance is working very well with processes being completed in under two days in one instance. "ELCOT being cash-rich is quite open to invest and support the semiconductors' industry in myriad ways," he further added.

In his pitch for investments Kerala's special secretary K R Jyothilal said," The state would become the first in India by announcing a separate policy for the semiconductor sector shortly which points to the fact that we are focused on attracting investment in design and development and not much of manufacturing."

The state is also sending its faculty to IIT-Mumbai for training to permeate better quality teaching and would shortly be setting up two self contained cities in the state. He called upon the industry to support research chairs being set up by across the leading institutions and said the state is looking to spread the investment by positioning six different centre within the state for investment.

According to him the government is planning to host a delegation of leading representatives of the industry in the state to showcase its prowess. He said Cochin is India's best kept secret and that costs of living and operating were the lowest compared to any city in the country."