Due to the prevailing geopolitical situation, like-minded countries are collaborating with India to make it a major semiconductor manufacturing destination, a senior official from the Ministry of Electronics and IT said on Sunday.
In an interview with PTI, Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and IT S Krishnan said that pilot facilities of US storage semiconductor maker Micron and Tata Electronics have already rolled out chips and their main plants in Gujarat will start producing chips made in India from the end of 2025.
“Globally, and due to geopolitical circumstances, there is a growing awareness that semiconductors are a very important and strategic commodity and therefore we need substantial resilience in semiconductor production,” Krishnan said.
The importance of resilience in semiconductors was underscored during the pandemic, when many industries (including automotive, medical devices and other electronics, and consumer electronics) suffered because they did not have access to chips, leading to the belief that there should be greater diversification, especially for semiconductor sourcing, he added.
“To build this resilience, many like-minded countries are collaborating with India to make India the next big destination where semiconductor manufacturing can actually happen. This is fundamentally aimed at building resilience in the global semiconductor value chain. We have an agreement with the US, the EU, the UK, Japan and now Singapore as well,” Krishnan said.
The government has approved projects involving investments of Rs 1.5 trillion so far. This excludes the recently announced Adani Group – Tower Semiconductor invests Rs 83,000 crore in setting up a new chip plant in Maharashtra.
“The government has approved five projects under the Indian Semiconductor Mission. The construction of Micron’s flagship plant in Gujarat is at an advanced stage. They have completed their pilot facility. Similarly, Tata Electronics has also set up its pilot facility for ATMP in Karnataka. These two pilot facilities have already launched the first chips. At the flagship facility, sometime towards the second half of 2025, we should see the launch of the first chips,” Krishnan said.
He also noted that semiconductor ecosystem companies are showing keen interest in India and that there has been a four-fold increase in attendance at the upcoming Semicon India event due to the country’s potential for the semiconductor ecosystem.
“Semi is a global association of all semiconductor industries. They hold global conferences in the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Kuala Lumpur and other places.
“India joins the select group of countries that host a Semicom. I am happy to inform you that this event in India has four times more registrations and more incidents than when the first conference was held in any other country,” Krishan said.
According to Semi, there will be over 650 booths and over 250 semiconductor companies at Semicon India.
Krishnan said the idea that India has the potential to be the world’s leading semiconductor chip manufacturer and can meet global resilience needs is something that excites a large number of companies and other countries as well.
“They (companies) see the potential of India as a source of human resources, a destination for manufacturing with the right technical talent and at the same time a potentially large market where they can actually sell semiconductor products,” Krishnan said.
Disclaimer:
The information contained in this post is for general information purposes only. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the post for any purpose.
We respect the intellectual property rights of content creators. If you are the owner of any material featured on our website and have concerns about its use, please contact us. We are committed to addressing any copyright issues promptly and will remove any material within 2 days of receiving a request from the rightful owner.