New Delhi: India is building up the capacity to manufacture seven crore chips every day with the construction of four semiconductor units across the country, which is progressing at a rapid pace. The units are together expected to bring in investments of about 1.5 lakh crore. The latest unit to be approved was in September, with the Union Cabinet greenlighting the construction of a semiconductor unit in Sanad, Gujarat by Keynes Semicon Pvt Ltd. CG Power was already setting up is semiconductor unit, also in Sanad. The remaining two big projects are a semiconductor fab in Dholera, Gujarat and another in Marigaon, Assam by Tata Electronics.
The chips manufactured at these units are expected to be used by a wide range of applications, including industries, electric vehicles, automotive sector, consumer electronics, smartphones and telecom infrastructure. India is forging strong technology partnerships with other countries such as USA and Japan in crucial domains such as semiconductor manufacturing. Tata Electronics is partnering with Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (PSMC) from Taiwan for its plant in Dholera. For its plant in Sanad, Gujarat, CG Power is partnering with Renesas Electronics Corporation from Japan and Stars Microelectronics from Thailand. The government is also taking steps to encourage semiconductor startups in India.
How the Government is encouraging Semiconductor Startups in India
On encouraging domestic startups to scale sustainably and becoming globally competitive, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar explained, “So far, 7 chip design startups have been approved for funding and assistance in developing their products. This initiative is steadily gaining confidence and support. It’s a relatively new opportunity for startups to delve into deep tech and semiconductor design. We are envisaging that the programme should eventually include larger companies as well. We have launched a Digital India RISC-V program(DIR-V) and a large number of startups and incubation centres built around academic institutions are focusing on the future of RISC-V and on the devices it operates on.”
