Rs 16,549 crore, govt pushes for AI, developing semiconductors

New Delhi, February 1

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In a push for making cutting-edge technology in India, the government allocated specific money for developing and designing IT hardware and semiconductors in the Budget announced today.

The Ministry of Electronics an Information Technology (MeiTY) was today allocated Rs 16,549 crore for the next fiscal, up from Rs 14,300 crore allocated this fiscal.

A sum of Rs 1,799 crore has been allocated for a scheme to fund the design and produce semiconductors, silicon-based sensors, discrete semiconductors and semiconductor assembly, testing, marking and test facilities in India.

Another scheme, “Setting up of semiconductor fabrication”, has been allocated Rs 1,000 crore. The government has also allocated Rs 4,499 crore as production-linked incentive for large-scale electronics manufacturing and another Rs 146 crore as the incentive for IT hardware.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her speech a push for artificial intelligence saying that it had to be “Make AI in India and Make AI work for India”. “Three centres of excellence for artificial intelligence will be set up in top educational institutions,” she said.