India’s top industrialists are stepping up to meet the country’s semiconductor goals.
After the Tata group had begun work on India’s first semiconductor fabrication plant in Gujarat and an Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test plant in Assam, the Adani group has thrown its hat into the semiconductor ring. The Adani Group has partnered with Israel’s Tower semiconductor to set up a semiconductor manufacturing facility in Maharashtra. The project will cost $10 billion (Rs. 83,000 crore), and create 5,000 jobs.
The semiconductor facility will be located in Navi Mumbai suburbs within Raigad district in Taloja, Panvel. It is will have an initial capacity of 40,000 wafer starts per month (WSPM) during its first phase. The overall capacity is projected to reach 80,000 WPSM upon completion. The first phase of the project will cost Rs. 58,763 crore, while the second will cost Rs. 25,184 crore. The plant will be India’s second chip manufacturing facility after the Tata Group’s plant in Dholera, Gujarat.
While the project has received approval from the Maharashtra cabinet, it still requires final approval from the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to secure central government incentives.
The plant will end up being the sixth semiconductor plant in India, and only the second semiconductor manufacturing plant in the country. The Tata Group is setting up a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Gujarat, and a semiconductor assembly and test plant in Assam. Apart from this, US giant Micron is setting up a semiconductor plant in Gujarat, and just last week, Mysore-based Kaynes Technology had received approval to set up a semiconductor assembly and test plant in Gujarat.
All these moves are under India’s semiconductor mission, which aims to build India’s semiconductor capabilities. Electronic chips are used in virtually all everyday appliances these days, and the coronavirus lockdowns — and the subsequent chip shortage — had revealed India’s dependencies on foreign countries to be able to acquire them. After the pandemic had passed, India had decided to build semiconductor facilities of its own. These facilities, however, require massive amounts of investment, which can often take decades to recoup. The Indian government had then incentivized large players to set up semiconductor plants through tax breaks and other monetary schemes. And it appears that the country’s top industrialists, including the Tatas and Gautam Adani, have taken heed, and are set to put India on the world semiconductor map.