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The Government on Friday said the first ‘Made in India’ chip should be ready by December 2024 from Micron’s facility which is being set up in Gujarat.
“By December 2024, first ‘Made in India’ chip should be ready...definitely. It is always difficult for the first unit to come up, but when a big unit comes, the whole ecosystem automatically follows...First ‘Made-in India’ chip from Micron is expected to come out in about six quarters from now,” Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, told reporters to a question by businessline.
Sighting an example, he said just like in the automobile sector, Maruti came in the beginning then Toyota and Hyundai also came, and then Tata also started manufacturing.
That’s why it is important to develop the first unit, he said, adding that around 200 smaller units as part of the ecosystem, mostly in chemical and gas manufacturing would come along as part of the ecosystem, which are required in manufacturing of fabs/ wafers.
Micron’s investment
Micron Technology has committed to invest $825 million as part of the total project cost of $2.75 billion in the next five years to build semiconductor in India. The products manufactured in Micron’s India unit will cater to domestic consumption and also for exports.
Briefing mediapersons after a joint statement issued by US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the US, Vaishnaw said that land allocation, factory design work and tax compliance-related agreement for the Micron semiconductor plant to be set up in Gujarat has been completed.
“Hopefully, we should have four-five semiconductor plants in the next 12 months,” he said. Micron is among the top five semiconductor companies in the world.
The semiconductor facilities are also expected to generate 5,000 direct and 15,000 indirect jobs during the same period.
“President Biden and Prime Minister Modi hailed the signing of an MoU on Semiconductor Supply Chain and Innovation Partnership as a significant step in the coordination of our countries’ semiconductor incentive programmes. This will promote commercial opportunities, research, talent, and skill development,” the joint statement said.
Meanwhile, for applicants who had given their applications in January, government has asked them to resubmit their applications, modify their applications according to the modified programme so that they have the option to focus on certain sectors, fine-tune technology partners and they have the option to change their applications as per the requirement of the industry, Vaishnaw said adding that the Ministry has asked Vedanta-Foxconn joint venture also to resubmit their proposal for semiconductor manufacturing in India. The Ministry will re-evaluate the application based on their fresh proposal.
When asked Vedanta-Foxconn, a spokesperson told businessline, “We have submitted the application as per the revised guidelines. We are committed to building a world class fab in India.”
Under the modified programme, the government has increased the fiscal incentive to 50 per cent of the project cost for setting up semiconductor Fabs in India of any node (including mature nodes).
Earlier, the scheme offered fiscal support of 30 per cent of capital expenditure to approved units for setting up compound semiconductors, silicon photonics, sensor fabs and semiconductor assembly test marking and packaging (ATMP) facilities in India.
Meanwhile, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, said the big-ticket announcements by players including Micron, Applied Materials, and Lam Research during Prime Minister’s US visit will create an estimated 80,000 jobs, and underscore the resolve of the two countries to shape the future of technology.
Semiconductor equipment maker Applied Materials has also announced to invest $400 million in the next four years to build a collaborative engineering centre in Bengaluru.
“The PM’s vision is to make India a central presence in the global semiconductor value chain. And, India is slowly and surely, after 75 years of being totally absent from the semiconductor space, becoming a growing force in the semiconductor ecosystem...from design to talent, and packaging to research and soon-to-be in fab,” Chandrasekhar said.
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