India is going to be the next big semiconductor destination

Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for Electronics and IT stated that India will become the upcoming semiconductor nation at the ET Startup Awards 2024 in Bengaluru. Vaishnaw mentioned a recent meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and top technology industry CEOs in New York, where three CEOs noted a level of enthusiasm not seen for any country in the past 35 to 40 years.

He reiterated that Micron Technology, which is based in Idaho, will release the initial memory chips produced in India by early 2025. He also provided an update on the advancement of other chip packaging sites such as CG Power's Sanand facility and Tata Electronics' Assam ATMP facility.

“The CG Power facility should also come up very fast. The construction work is going on. In Tata’s ATMP facility in Assam, construction work is going on very well,” he said.

Vaishnaw recently announced the signing of a technology agreement between Tata Electronics and Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp for India's first fabrication unit in Gujarat's Dholera.

“What we are seeing is that the ecosystem for about 200 odd players who must come in, their entire initial hesitance, the thoughts they had have all got converted into that this is the next big semiconductor destination. That is something they feel comfortable about,” Vaishnaw said.

The minister said that the quantum of manufacturing in the country is today worth $120 billion. “We have identified about eight sub-modules where we can have large scale production, and the programme is in the process of being finalised. All the stakeholders are being consulted. That will give the next wave of manufacturing in the country,” he said.