Aligning with India’s goal to advance its chip industry, Electronics Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s meeting with Ecolab centred around the accessibility of ultra-pure water for semiconductor projects nationwide.
Last week, Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, met with officials from Ecolab, a global company providing food and water safety services. The meeting focused on ensuring the availability of ultra-pure water for ongoing and future semiconductor manufacturing projects across India.
In a post on X, Vaishnaw highlighted Ecolab’s extensive experience working with significant semiconductor manufacturers worldwide, which positions them well to address the needs of the Indian chip industry. He described the meeting as “productive”, emphasising that India is steadily progressing toward becoming a global semiconductor hub in line with the Prime Minister’s vision.
However, no other information about a probable partnership were disclosed by the minister or the company.
Meanwhile, Managing Director of Ecolab India, Manish Khandelwal expressed optimism about this meeting, commenting, “We discussed with Minister Vaishnaw the essential role of ultra-pure water in the semiconductor sector and how Ecolab can support this industry while promoting water conservation.”
Earlier, on various occasions, the Union Minister has conveyed that he sees India as a global manufacturing hub of semiconductors by 2030.
In 2022, the government launched the Semicon India program with an initial budget of Rs 760 billion to develop a semiconductor fabrication and display manufacturing ecosystem in the country.
This year, three major projects were approved under the program, including the first chip fabrication unit in Dholera, Gujarat, with a 50,000 wafer-per-month capacity and an investment of Rs 910 billion. Additional projects include ATMP facilities in Sanand, Gujarat, and Assam.