Siddarth Srivastava, Business Times 26 Feb 08;
INDIA'S move to offer tax breaks and capital subsidies to semiconductor makers is having an impact, especially in the area of solar cells that convert sunlight into electricity.
Junior federal Minister of Commerce Jairam Ramesh has announced that Reliance Industries will set up a US$5 billion-plus solar cell manufacturing plant in the western industrial state of Gujarat.
He also said India's first Fab City in Hyderabad has received confirmed investments of US$7 billion over 10 years, the bulk of which are for solar cell manufacture.
Eight more investments totalling US$6 billion are likely to be approved soon, Mr Ramesh said.
The assured projects are SemIndia (US$3 billion), Nano Tech Silicon India (US$2 billion), Solar Semiconductor (US$1 billion), Titan Energy Systems (US$750 million), XL Telecom & Energy (US$75 million), KSK Energy (US$70 million) and Embedded IT Solutions.
Other big proposals lined up are by Videocon, HSMC and Moser Baer.
According to Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, solar cells are a US$13 billion global industry that will grow to US$40 billion by 2012.
Last year, California- based Signet Solar announced plans to invest US$2 billion over the next 10 years to set up three plants in India to make solar cells.
And a consortium of players from South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, in a tie-up with the Kolkata-based Synergy Renewable Energy, is setting up a unit to make silicon wafers for solar cells in West Bengal - the first involvement of Korean and Taiwanese majors in solar energy in India.
Tata BP Solar, a US$260 million venture between Tata and British energy giant BP, has identified a vast market for affordable solar power to villages outside India's national grid.
