pm narendra modi lays foundation stone for three semiconductor plants

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday laid the foundation stone, through a virtual ceremony, for three semiconductor projects worth around ₹1.25-lakh crore.

The three sites are Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR) in Dholera, Gujarat; Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facility at Sanand, Gujarat; and OSAT facility at Morigaon, Assam.

The semiconductor fabrication facility at DSIR will be set up by Tata Electronics Private Limited (TEPL) and its partner Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC) of Taiwan, under the modified scheme for setting up semiconductor fabs in India. At ₹91,000 crore investment, it will be the country’s first commercial semiconductor fab.

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Similarly, the OSAT facility in Morigaon will be set up by TEPL under the modified scheme for semiconductor assembly, testing, marking and packaging (ATMP), with an investment of about ₹27,000 crore.

The OSAT facility in Sanand will be set up by CG Power and Industrial Solutions Limited along with its Japanese partner Renesas Electronics, under the ATMP scheme, with an investment of about ₹7,500 crore.

Green power

“Since 1962, India has been trying to set up semiconductor industry, we are getting successful today… it is all because of a decisive leadership. The generations to come in future will remember this historical day. Today at one go, there are three foundation laying ceremony for semiconductor units and including the recent Micron project… India’s semiconductor industry will kick off,” Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, and Railways, said on the sidelines of the foundation stone laying ceremony for the fab unit at Dholera.

“The first chip from this facility at Dholera will be produced by December 2026,” he added. The unit will get “100 per cent green power” and 100 MLD (million litres per day) of water from the Narmada river, he said.

The foundation stone event for the three semiconductor manufacturing projects comes within 15 days of the Cabinet approving the projects, he said.

Specialised chips

Micron Technologies, which was the first semiconductor unit to set up base at Sanand in Gujarat, is expected to manufacture the first chip by December 2024. The Union minister said that while the Micron unit will produce memory chips for all devices including mobile phones, laptops and computers, the semiconductor unit of CG Power and Renesas Electronics will produce “highly-specalised chips” for use in satellites, rockets and other niche products.

“The chips manufactured at Dholera will serve a wide variety of industries ranging from power electronics to defence electronics,” Vaishnaw said, adding that it would produce 28-, 50- and 55-nanometre chips. Tata’s semiconductor unit in Assam will focus on electric vehicles and automobile sector. “The technology that will be used in India is indigenous,” he added.

“By 2029, India will be among the top five semiconductor manufacturing countries,” he said. “There are eight categories of equipment that are used in semiconductor manufacturing. Plans are being readied to manufacture equipment from five of the eight categories in India,” the minister said.

N Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Sons, said the Tata units will create 50,000 jobs in future and supply chips to automotive, medical devices, defence and consumer electronics sectors.