The world requires a resilient semiconductor supplier and India can rise to the occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday. He was inaugurating the Semicon India 2023 conference taking place in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
"The semiconductor industry trusts India because we have a massive talent pool of skilled engineers and designers," the prime minister said.
The prime minister added that the government has identified 300 colleges in the country for offering programmes related to semiconductor development.
Earlier in the day, Mark Papermaster, the chief technology officer of American chip major AMD committed $400 million for establishing a research facility in Bengaluru, India.
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"India becoming a semiconductor hub will be beneficial for the entire world and that is out desire," the prime minister added in his inaugural address.
In December 2021, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) introduced the scheme for setting up chip fabrication facilities (fabs) in India. The scheme was further modified in 2022, increasing the subsidies for successful fab applications.
Although India received multiple applications for semiconductor fabs, none of them received the nod from the government so far.
Earlier, Anil Agarwal's Vedanta group had tied up with Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn to manufacture chips in India.
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However, the joint venture faced trouble in roping in a technology partner before the partnership fell apart and both partners decided to go solo in their pursuit of setting up semiconductor fabs in India.
"Vedanta is fully committed to build semiconductors and display fabs in India," Anil Agarwal said at the Semicon India conference.
The three-day Semicon India conference will conclude on 30 July. This is the second edition of Semicon India. Bengaluru hosted the first edition in April 2022
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