Traditional Welcome: Students of St.Philomena School in Tindivanam with Craig R.Barrett, chairman, Intel Corporation and his wife Barbara Barrett. Union Minister Anbumani Ramadoss is in the picture.

TINDIVANAM: Responding to a query on possible future business plans for India, Intel Corporation chairman Craig R. Barrett has said that the company did not feel the need for a semiconductor fabrication plant in the near future but said if it did, India would be high on its list.

Mr. Barrett was at Tindivanam, a small town 140 km from Chennai, on Monday to participate in a function the company jointly organised with the Union Ministry for Health and Family Welfare.

At a brief press conference, Mr. Barrett said when the company first began talks with the Indian government on the possibility of setting up a fabrication plant here, it did not have a well-laid out plan for the proposal to proceed.

But in the interim period that the Indian government took to come out with its semiconductor policy, Intel had already been committed to two major plants in China and Vietnam.

“It was probably not as timely as it should have been,” he said.

Responding to another query on the low-cost computers for schools (‘classmate’) that the company had brought out last year and the impact of such products on bridging the digital divide, Mr. Barrett said the low-cost hardware was just one part of the solutions. “There are other manufacturers too … some Taiwanese manufacturers have announced products at even lower prices and there is also the One Laptop per Child Project of Nicholas Negroponti. But there are other bigger challenges too such as providing access.”