Union Electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday claimed that within five years, India will be in the top five countries manufacturing semiconductor chips. He was speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony of India's first semiconductor fab built under the collaboration of Tata Group and Taiwan's PSMC in the Dholera Special Industrial Region (SIR) of Gujarat.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually carried out the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Dholera fab and two other semiconductor manufacturing plants on Wednesday.
Under the 'Development of Semiconductors and Display Manufacturing Ecosystems in India' program of the central government, three new chip plants - two in Gujarat and one in Assam-- are being set up, in addition to the under construction chip plant at Sanand by the semiconductor giant Micron in Gujarat. The Tata Group is setting up two of these three new plants, one each in Gujarat and Assam.
"These projects will help India to become a global hub in semiconductor manufacturing. India is already a tech-space, a nuclear power and a digital power. We will start commercial production of semiconductors in the near times. India will soon become a global power in this sector as well," PM Modi said while virtually laying the foundation stone of the three projects.
The union minister for Information and Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, who was present at the TATA plant site in Dholera Special Industrial Region (SIR) was amazed at the speed with which the Gujarat government allocated the land and said, "This is a world record, where within just days of the approval of the projects, the state government has allocated the land. Since 1962, there were attempts to succeed in the semiconductor manufacturing but it's only now that the success could be achieved under Prime Minister Modi's leadership."
"The semiconductor plant at Sanand will start seeing chips turned out in December 2024, while this plant (Dholera) will have chips production in December 2026," Vaishnav told the reporters. "At the Dholera plant, there will be three loads of chip manufacturing, that of 28 Nanometers (nm), 50 nm and 55 nm. All these are widely used in mobile, automobile and power industries. While in the Assam plant, the technology will be totally Indian. India will be in the top five semiconductor manufacturing countries in the world by 2029," said Vaishnav.
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said, "According to the Gujarat semiconductor policy, whichever semiconductor projects approved by the central government, automatically gets approval by the Gujarat government and process become much speedier." The Gujarat CM also assured the setting up of basic amenities for residential like residences, schools, healthcare facilities and said that they will come up in the Semicon City in Dholera SIR
"Foundation stones are being laid simultaneously for our projects in Dholera as well as in Jagiroad in Assam, both 2,500 kilometres apart. Today our journey to build semiconductor has begun. For the first time India will have capabilities to solve the chips demand in India. The ecosystem from across the globe will mobilize to have India as their preferred semiconductor destination," said TATA Sons Chairman Natrajan Chandrashekharan.
The Programme for Development of Semiconductors and Display Manufacturing Ecosystem in India was notified on December 21, 2021, with a total outlay of Rs. 76,000 crore.
The TATAs, Tata Electronics Private Limited ("TEPL") will set up the Dholera semiconductor fab in partnership with Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (PSMC), Taiwan with an investment of ₹91,000 crore.)The Dholera plant capacity will be 50,000 wafer starts per month (WSPM).
CG Power, in partnership with Renesas Electronics Corporation, Japan and Stars Microelectronics, Thailand will set up a semiconductor unit in Sanand, Gujarat. This unit will be set up with an investment of Rs 7,600 crore. The CG power semiconductor unit will manufacture chips for consumer, industrial, automotive and power applications.
Tata Semiconductor Assembly and Test Pvt Ltd ("TSAT") will set up a semiconductor unit in Morigaon, Assam. With a capacity of producing 48 million chips per day, this facility is being built at a cost of Rs 27,000 crore. Segments that will be covered are automotive, electric vehicles, consumer electronics, telecom, and mobile phones.
Apart from these, the semiconductor giant Micron Technology is investing $2.5 billion (INR 22,500 crore) to establish an ATMP (Assembly, Test, Marking, and Packaging) facility in Gujarat's Sanand GIDC-II. Sanand GIDC is a highly industrialized zone in Gujarat, home to many national and multinational manufacturing industries.
