New Delhi, Feb 21 (IANS): The government is planning to have at least three to four semiconductor fabrication plants in the next five years, as the country gears up for the first indigenous chip roll-out in December this year, Union IT and Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said here on Wednesday.

In his remarks at the launch of PhonePe’s native, Android-based Indus Appstore at the Bharat Mandapam in the capital, the minister said the next level of productivity in chips will come from advanced manufacturing and packaging.

"We will soon see at least three or three more approvals in fab and assembly, testing, marking and packaging (ATMP)," he added.

Indus Appstore is PhonePe's attempt at creating a more competitive and localised mobile app store economy for India, which is already the largest mobile apps download market globally. It allows Indian consumers to download over 2 lakh mobile apps and games, across 45 categories. Users will be able to discover these apps conveniently in 12 Indian languages, thereby catering to 95 per cent of Indians’ language preferences, PhonePe said in a statement.

"Indus Appstore challenges the status quo, ushering in an era of more healthy competition in the mobile app marketplace, which in turn should help create a more democratic and vibrant Indian digital ecosystem," said Sameer Nigam, CEO and Founder, PhonePe.