Notably, Odisha is the only state to introduce incentives for fabless products or IP (intellectual property) companies.
The Odisha government has signed three memoranda of understanding (MoU) with IESA, ESA and Synopsys, respectively, in an attempt to catalyse building semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem in the state. The MoUs were signed in the Odisha4Silicon-2023 event hosted by the Odisha government.
The India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) will assist the Odisha government in capacity building programmes ranging from courses to workshops to upskill the workforce. It will encourage establishment of semiconductor businesses in the state. It will help to organise events including conferences, trade shows and meet-ups etc. The creation of informational and educational materials is also a part of the agreement.
According to the MoU with Synopsys, the two will collaborate for the O-chip programme. The program was launched earlier this year to address the difficulties experienced by the fabless ecosystem which aims at creating a facility for semiconductor designing and manufacturing and generating high-end jobs.
Synopsys will provide internships and placement assistance to the engineering students of Odisha and readiness assessment for VLSI (Very large scale integration) domain. This would contribute to talent transformation and workforce development.
The third MoU is with the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC). This agreement aims to promote electronics and information technology (IT) exports.
Apart from the MoUs, the event marked other stepping stones towards making Odisha a semiconductor manufacturing hub. This includes the launches of pan-India design challenge, IESA Odisha chapter and campus connect programme. Odisha’s semiconductor policy provides the manufacturers with 75% (highest amongst all other states) of incentives to set up plants in Odisha.
