India's southern state of Karnataka has a signed a $3-billion agreement with chip consortium ISMC to set up a semiconductor manufacturing plant, state officials said on Sunday.

ISMC is a joint venture between Abu Dhabi-based Next Orbit Ventures and Israel's Tower Semiconductor. Tower is currently being acquired by U.S. chip giant Intel Corp.

(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in New Delhi; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)