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In a significant push to India's chip-making ambitions, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday approved four new semiconductor manufacturing projects with a total investment of Rs 4,600 crore under the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM). The projects will boost domestic production of chips, packaging and advanced materials, generating over 2,000 skilled jobs directly.
Out of the four projects that have been approved, two are in Odisha, one in Punjab, and one in Andhra Pradesh. "Four new semiconductor projects have been approved. You know that six projects are already approved and four new ones have been added to it today. These are in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab, at an investment of Rs 4,594 Crore," Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at a press conference in New Delhi today. The approvals take the total India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) portfolio to 10 projects across six states with cumulative investments of Rs 1.6 lakh crore. The government said the move is in line with its vision of building a robust and self-reliant semiconductor ecosystem to support sectors ranging from defence to consumer electronics.Two of the approved projects will come up in Odisha's Info Valley, Bhubaneswar, making the state an emerging hub for the sector. SiCSem Private Limited will set up the country's first commercial compound semiconductor fabrication facility, capable of producing 60,000 wafers annually and packaging 96 million units. The plant's products will cater to applications in electric vehicles, railways, fast chargers, data centres, solar inverters, consumer appliances and missile systems.The second Odisha project, by 3D Glass Solutions Inc. (3DGS), will establish an advanced packaging and embedded glass substrate facility. It will introduce the world's most advanced semiconductor packaging technology to India, with an annual capacity of 69,600 glass panel substrates, 50 million assembled units and 13,200 3D Heterogeneous Integration (3DHI) modules. The technology will be used in high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, defence electronics, radio frequency and photonics applications.In Andhra Pradesh, Advanced System in Package (ASIP) Technologies, in collaboration with South Korea's APACT Co. Ltd., will set up a semiconductor manufacturing unit with a capacity of 96 million units a year. The plant will serve markets for mobile devices, set-top boxes, automotive electronics and other applications.The fourth project that was approved by the Union Cabinet is for Continental Device India Ltd. (CDIL) in Mohali, Punjab, it will expand the company's discrete semiconductor manufacturing capacity. The upgraded facility will produce 158.38 million units of high-power devices annually, including MOSFETs, IGBTs, Schottky diodes and transistors in both silicon and silicon carbide. These components are used in EV electronics, renewable energy systems, power conversion, industrial automation and communication infrastructure.The approvals mark a decisive step in positioning India as a global semiconductor hub. "These projects will accelerate our journey towards Atmanirbhar Bharat in electronics manufacturing and create a talent pool that will serve global industry," the government said in a statement.The ISM has already attracted major investments and fostered a growing design ecosystem, with 72 startups and 278 academic institutions engaged in semiconductor R&D and training. Over 60,000 students are benefitting from semiconductor talent development programmes across the country. (ANI)
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