The Indian government greenlit 22 electronics component investments on Friday — totalling $4.6 billion — amid continued efforts to build local supply chains. The proposals cleared by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology are projected to generate Rs 2,58,152 crore in output as well as 33,791 direct employment opportunities. Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw also predicted that the nation would be among the top four semiconductor manufacturing countries by 2032 and become the best by 2035.
Production to begin this year
Four chip companies are slated to begin commercial production this year — with almost all the top automobile and telecom companies sourcing semiconductors from them. The government has so far approved 10 manufacturing units, including 2 fabs (fabrication units) and 8 chip assembly, test and packaging projects, with an investment of Rs 1.6 lakh crore under the Semicon India Programme.
The projects include those from heavyweight companies such as Samsung and Tata Electronics. It is expected to strengthen domestic supply chains and curb import dependence. The government has made extensive efforts to localise production of high-value sub-assemblies such as camera and display modules in recent years — hoping to better shield the Indian electronics supply chain from external shocks.
“The plants which started pilot production last year, they are the ones that will get into commercial production earlier, which is Kaynes and CG Semi. Micron has also started pilot production very recently. They will also go next month. Tata plant in Assam will start pilot production by middle of the year, and by the end of the year they will start the commercial production,” Vaishnaw said.
22 proposals worth $4.6 billion
According to an official government release, the clearances include manufacturing of 11 target segment products, which have cross sectoral application such as mobile manufacturing, telecom, consumer electronics, strategic electronics, automotive and IT hardware products.
The 11 products are:
- 5 bare components like PCB, Capacitors, Connectors, Enclosures and Li-ion Cell
- 3 sub-assemblies like Camera Module, Display Module and Optical Transceiver
- 3 supply chain items like Aluminium Extrusion, Anode Material and Laminate (Copper Clad)