India will soon knock on the doors of computer parts and peripheral manufacturers to set up facilities to make high-end products ranging from chips to TFT (thin film transistor) monitors.

Communications and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran will start by asking Craig Barett, chief of the world's largest chipmaker Intel, to set up a chip manufacturing facility here when he meets him early next month.

China and Vietnam are also wooing Intel to set up manufacturing facilities in their countries, but the leading chipmaker already has a facility in Bangalore for key semi-conductor design work.

"I am going to knock on everyone's door," Maran told reporters here, saying he would also meet officials of global supplier of integrated circuits for computers AMD and hard disk maker Seagate.

Stressing the need for momentum in the personal computer (PC) manufacturing sector, the minister said he would later invite computer manufacturers from Taiwan too to set up facilities in India.

However, manufacturers of conventional PC monitors would be discouraged as there are too many players in the field already.

"TFT monitors are the next thing in computer monitors and I would look at inviting those manufacturing TFT screens," he said.

Maran said he expected an investment of about $600-800 million in the manufacturing sector during fiscal 2005-06.

--Indo-Asian News Service