With strong industry confidence and ISM backing, the first ‘Made-in-India’ semiconductor chip will launch this year, says Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
The first ‘Made-in-India’ semiconductor chip will now be launched in 2025, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw confirmed during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week.
The chip’s rollout has been delayed. Initially slated for release in December 2024, Vaishnaw noted that industry confidence in the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) remains strong, and significant progress has been made.
Vaishnaw also highlighted that the next phase of the programme, ISM 2.0, involves attracting equipment manufacturers, material suppliers, and designers to India. He explained that achieving the necessary purity levels in materials – from parts per million to parts per billion – will require substantial advancements in the manufacturing process, which the industry is currently working towards.
India’s semiconductor ambitions are backed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s (MeitY) ISM programme, initially launched in December 2021 with a budget of ₹760 billion, in the first edition of SEMICON India.
This initiative is designed to foster the growth of the country’s semiconductor and display manufacturing sectors, providing financial support to companies in these fields. As a part of Digital India Corporation, MeitY aimed to formulate long-term strategies to develop the semiconductor ecosystem in India.
Foreign investment in India’s semiconductor industry is growing. Notable examples include NXP Semiconductors, which plans to invest over $1 billion in R&D, and Micron Technology, which is building a $2.75 billion assembly and testing plant in Gujarat.
The plant is expected to create 5,000 direct jobs and 15,000 community jobs. India’s semiconductor market is expected to reach $63 billion by 2026.
