The Hindu Business Line : India poised to become hub for chip manufacture: Maran

Having identified RFID as the springboard to make strides in the IT hardware sector, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, Minister for Communications and IT, said here today that the country's efforts to spur hardware would be best served by investing in manufacturing next generation chips with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Speaking to the media here on the sidelines of the facility inauguration of e4e, Mr Maran said the Centre is considering taking the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) route to enter into big-league microchip manufacturing.

"Setting up a chip-manufacturing facility is not a small thing; we need to invest around $3 billion. We have to make sure we bring the right technology," Mr Maran said.

According to him, there is talk on brining RFID chip manufacturing to the country, however it was in the drawing-board stage as of now.

An RFID system comprises microchips that communicate with readers through an antennae using electromagnetic waves.

The IT Ministry is in the process of formulating a Data Protection Act. The draft proposal has been sent across to Nasscom and industry players "for suggestions and once we receive feedback from them we shall be ready to bring out the policy. The policy has been framed keeping in mind the EU and US laws regarding data protection," remarked Mr Maran.