Semicon 2.0 policy in the next 3-4 months: Ashwini Vaishnaw
India Semiconductor Mission 2.0 (Semicon 2.0) will focus on bringing the entire semiconductor manufacturing supply chain to India
The government will launch the second phase of India’s semiconductor manufacturing policy in the next three to four months as the first stage is “practically complete”, electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.
India Semiconductor Mission 2.0 (Semicon 2.0) will focus on bringing the entire semiconductor manufacturing supply chain to India.
“We will now focus equally on ecosystem partners, equipment manufacturers as we have done on ATMP (assembly, testing, marking and packaging) and fabs. Simultaneously, we will look at how to bring the chemicals being produced in the world to India. Third big emphasis will be on specialised materials. The entire value chain from materials to wafers will be brought,” Vaishnaw said while speaking at the SEMICON expo on Wednesday.
“The focus is on developing the entire ecosystem which includes equipment, specialised materials, and specialised chemicals and gases,” he said.
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The government is working on Semicon 2.0 and getting all the necessary approvals from different government departments.
Vaishnaw didn’t specify the outlay for Semicon 2.0 but said that the government has been holding “detailed consultations with each player in the semiconductor industry”.
“All industry participants are emphasising on one thing — just bringing ATMP units or fab units is not enough. The focus should be on building the entire ecosystem. This industry uses specialised chemicals. There are about 250 chemicals and gases that are unique to the industry. Raw materials used to manufacture semiconductors have purity requirements much higher than other industries. Bringing all these together and setting it all up is very difficult,” he said.
Vaishnaw said that the fact this industry captains from across the world had gathered under one roof was evidence of India’s importance to global semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem.
This shows “how important India is in the plan and how much confidence today they have on our efforts, on our stable policies, on the visionary leadership of our prime minister”, he said.
Under Semicon 1.0, the government has so far approved five semiconductor units — four in Gujarat and one in Assam.
“Three to four states will soon have semiconductor units, including Uttar Pradesh,” he said.
Uttar Pradesh (UP) chief minister Yogi Adityanath shed light on the state’s electronics and semiconductor policies.
He said that UP was giving both land capital subsidies and higher foreign direct investment (FDI) support for Fortune 500 companies working in the sector.
He also said that the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority had reserved 1,000 acre land to develop a semiconductor manufacturing cluster.
“Between the Centre and the state, total subsidies usually cross about 75%,” he said.