Government Approved Semiconductor Projects To Produce Over 24 Billion Chips Per Annum: Official
The government has put in place a Rs 76,000-crore scheme to boost the semiconductor ecosystem in India.
Semiconductor projects approved by the government till date will produce over 24 billion chips per annum and there are more projects in the pipeline as well, a senior IT ministry official said on Thursday.
Speaking at an event organised by Germany-based applied research organisation Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Amitesh Sinha, Additional Secretary in Ministry of Electronics and IT and India Semiconductor Mission chief executive officer, said that the government has approved six projects comprising a wafer fabrication plant by Tata Electronics and five packaging units.
"Tata fab is going to produce 50,000 wafers per month. The other 5 packaging units are going to produce 24 billion chips per annum. There are many more proposals under appraisal. So in near future you will see lot of approvals coming up," he said Sinha said that India is going to be a long-term player in the semiconductor space
"We are here for a long-term journey. Semiconductor is not a business for a few years. We assure all of you that the policies will be continued and support for development of the entire ecosystem will be provided," he said.
The government has put in place a Rs 76,000-crore scheme to boost the semiconductor ecosystem in India.
A significant amount of the fund has been committed to the approved projects.
"A lot of rare earth materials and permanent magnet recycling, all those are the areas where you can see synergy with Fraunhofer. Coming back to semiconductors, we are seeing that India has approved some proposals and is going to approve many others," Sinha said.
He asked German semiconductor companies to support fabrication activities in India.
Sinha said that there are a lot of collaboration opportunities with Germany as India is looking to enter in the space of high technology research.
"Now we are also going to develop the supply chain ecosystem in India. In the supply chain, a lot of technologies will be required for the high grade purity of chemical gases and materials. Fraunhofer's research is very strong in materials. In 2D materials or graphene also, there is a lot of scope and few of our R&D organizations are doing research in 2D and graphene technologies also. So there also I see scope," he said.
2D materials have the potential to produce over 10 times smaller chips than silicon-based chips being developed at present.
Sinha said India is a trusted player in the global supply chain and has policies which are very transparent.
"The honourable prime minister of India has already announced that we would like to be a trusted player in the global supply chain. Whatever industry we are setting here, whether it is semiconductor or artificial intelligence or quantum computing, it is for the better use for the entire world," Sinha said.
