He also said the government has given in-principle clearance to eight proposals from semiconductor manufacturers involving an investment of Rs.70,000 crore out of 15 proposals it had received.

'Most of the investments are in photo-voltaic projects,' the minister said.

Earlier, inaugurating the conference, Raja said incentives for IT units located in various Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) may be extended by three years, and that that the issue has been discussed with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

'Hopefully, the extension of incentives will happen soon.'

The minister also said the IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) sector grew by 12 percent last fiscal to $71 billion, of which $47.3 billion were from exports.