NEW DELHI: This year has been a landmark one for the country’s semiconductor industry as the government announced first semiconductor fab in Dholera, Gujarat.
The government approved the first fab proposal, which will be set up in partnership with Tata Electronics, a subsidiary of Tata Group, and Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (PSMC) of Taiwan, at a cost of Rs 91,000 crore.
As per the government, the plant will produce 50,000 wafer starts per month (WSPM).
Additionally, the government has approved the establishment of two ATMP (assembly, testing, marking, and packaging) units – one in Assam and the other in Dholera, Gujarat. Assam’s Morigoan plant, with an investment of Rs 27,000 crore, is expected to generate 15,000 direct jobs and 11,000 to 13,000 indirect jobs.
Another semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) facility, being set up by CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd. (CG) with an investment of Rs 7,600 crore, is a joint venture with Japan’s Renesas Electronics Corporation and Thailand’s Stars Microelectronics.
So far, chip industry has attracted investments of Rs 1.26 lakh crore, including the approval last year of US semiconductor giant Micron Technology’s packaging unit in Gujarat. This year, the government approved a proposal from Kaynes Semicon to establish a semiconductor unit in Sanand, Gujarat, Rs 3,300 crore investment.
The proposed unit will have a capacity of 60 lakh chips a day and will serve a range of applications, including industrial, automotive, electric vehicles, consumer electronics, telecom, and mobile phones. The government maintained that construction of all four chip units is progressing rapidly, and a robust semiconductor ecosystem is emerging around these units.
In a separate development, the Maharashtra government has approved a chip manufacturing project to be jointly set up by Israel’s Tower Semiconductor and the Adani Group. The project, located in Panvel, Raigad district, will involve an investment of Rs 58,763 crore in the first phase, with an additional Rs 25,184 crore in the second phase, creating 15,000 jobs. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has not yet approved any related applications.