Our Bureau
New Delhi
The Minister of Information and Broadcasting of India, Mr. Ashwini Vaishnaw has great news for the Indian tech market. It was reported yesterday that India’s cabinet has given approval to a new semiconductor plant. The plant will be a joint venture between HCL Group and Taiwan’s Foxconn and will cost 37.06 billion rupees ($435 million).
Mr. Vaishnaw explained in the cabinet briefing held in New Delhi that the new plant will be located near the Jewar airport in the northern region of Uttar Pradesh. The plant will be designed for a capacity of 20,000 wafers per month and will be able to produce 36 million display driver chips. He stated that the plant will begin commercial production in 2027. This will now be the sixth plant approved by the government under the India Semiconductor Mission.
This venture comes as an important step towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plans of making chips a top priority for India’s economic strategy to boost its role in global electronics manufacturing. Although currently there is no operational facility for manufacturing chips, the country is taking strides forward to making a name for itself in the global electronics manufacturing market.
Earlier, it was reported that billionaire Gautam Adani’s group’s discussions with Israel’s Tower Semiconductor for a $10 billion (roughly Rs. 85,402 crore) chip project was paused after there were concerns raised regarding its commercial demand. As announced by the state government of Maharashtra, the Adani and Tower venture was expected to generate 5000 job opportunities and produce around 80,000 wafers monthly.
In spite of these setbacks there are other chip manufacturing projects that are under development including an $11 billion (roughly Rs. 93,942 crore) chip manufacturing and testing facility by the Tata Group and a $2.7 billion (roughly Rs. 23,058 crore) chip packaging plant by a company based in the United States, Micron.
