India's chip ambitions are about to get larger
₹76,000 crore, as it expects a mushrooming of chip fabs and testing units in the country in the years ahead. India will emerge as one of the top five semiconductor ecosystems in world in the coming five years, IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in an interview. This will be backed by investments by global majors that are increasingly considering India for setting up fabrication or other units, the minister said.
“In coming five years, India is expected to witness about 4-6 more fabs, 6-10 compound semiconductor fabs, 1-2 display fabs, and 8-10 ATMP units. The entire design, fab and ATMP value chain will get established here in Bharat. In coming five years, Bharat will emerge as one of the top five semiconductor ecosystems in world," said Vaishnaw, who also holds the portfolios of telecom and railways.
ATMP refers to assembly, testing, monitoring and packaging of semiconductor chips, whereas fabs are fabrication units that make wafers from which integrated circuits or semiconductor chips are produced. “With the good success in very short time, we will work on India Semiconductor Mission 2.0 in the coming months. Yes; more funds will be required for taking forward the semiconductor programme," he added.
The India Semiconductor Mission is the nodal body implementing India’s $10-billion semiconductor manufacturing programme. On 1 March, the Union cabinet approved three chip sector projects with expected investments of ₹1.26 trillion, with the Tata group leading two of them. Tata Electronics Pvt.
Ltd and Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. will build a ₹91,000 crore semiconductor fab in Gujarat's Dholera, while Tata Semiconductor Assembly and Test Pvt. Ltd will set up an ATMP unit in Assam's Morigaon for ₹27,000
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