Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Union Cabinet on Wednesday (15 December) approved a scheme that will provide incentives worth Rs 76,000 crore to boost production of semiconductors and display in the country.

"An ambitious scheme to establish a complete ecosystem of semiconductors and display manufacturing has been sanctioned. Rs 76,000 crores will be spent on this scheme in six years," Union Minister Anurag Thakur said in a press briefing after the Cabinet meet.

Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said that PM Modi led Cabinet's decision to approve the scheme is 'historic' and will enable the setting up of complete ecosystem of semiconductor manufacturing including design, fabrication, packaging, and testing.

After the Cabinet nod to the scheme, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) will now work out the granular details and invite applications.

As part of the scheme, apart from big companies, the govt will also seek to incentivise startups to design and make semiconductors. In total, investments worth Rs 1.7 lakh crore are expected to materialise, reports Economic Times.

The government's moves comes amid the ongoing acute shortage of semiconductor chips, which has caused production processes worldwide to go haywire and prices to jump.