Davos 2025: First Made-In-India Chip Expected This Year, Says Ashwini Vaishnaw

The first made-in-India semiconductor chip is expected to be rolled out in 2025, said Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union minister for electronics and information technology, while speaking to NDTV on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday.

"We should have our first made-in-India chip rolled out this year itself," Vaishnaw said, adding that significant progress has been made on this front since the launch of the Semiconductor Mission in 2022.

The minister, who heads the India AI Mission, stressed that the country's plans to benefit from this emerging technology are on track. The government is currently working on the next phase of its AI mission, which revolves around two goals: having an indigenous AI model and getting a homegrown AI chip designed.

The India AI Mission is also expected to achieve three other key objectives in 2025, which includes the creation of common compute facility of 10,000 GPUs, he said. "Second is to have that very strong talent pipeline. Third is to basically focus on getting the applications in."

Vaishnaw also underlined that the government aims to put in place the "right regulatory framework" for artificial intelligence, where innovation and regulation are balanced.

"We have had a very senior-level committee headed by the principal scientific advisor to advise us on what should be the policy framework. So that recommendation has already come. We are discussing with all the stakeholders," he said.

Vaishnaw pointed towards the widespread consensus over the potential uses of AI, as the technology can be tapped for finding solutions towards some of the most complex challenges in the fields of healthcare, weather forecasting, logistics, and design.

"Simultaneously, the societal issues that are there must be addressed. So that understanding and that reckoning is very clear," he added.

Vaishnaw is among the five Union ministers sent by India to Davos, where policymakers from around 130 countries, along with an array of business leaders, have arrived to attend the WEF.

Watch: Ashwini Vaishnaw Speaks On India's AI Potential