New Delhi, June 9 -- The central government has introduced pioneering reforms in the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) rules to address the specialised needs of semiconductor and electronics component manufacturing sectors.

Since manufacturing in these sectors is highly capital-intensive, import-dependent and involves longer gestation periods before turning profitable, rule amendments have been carried out to promote pioneering investments and boost manufacturing in these high-technology sectors.

After amendments in Rule 5 of SEZ Rules, 2006, an SEZ set up exclusively for the manufacturing of semiconductors or electronic components will require a minimum contiguous land area of only 10 hectares, reduced from the earlier requirement of 50 hec...