New Delhi: The semiconductor industry is a foundation industry for the future and chips are going to be part of almost everything people do in their daily lives, Chairman of Tata Group N Chandrasekaran said on Saturday after the 'bhoomi pujan' of the Tata's semiconductor unit in Morigaon in Assam, which will be set up with an investment of Rs 27,000 crore.
He expressed confidence that part of the facilities will be completed sometime in 2025 and operations will start quickly.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma performed 'bhoomi pujan' of the facility in Jagiroad with Chandrasekaran and the unit is expected to generate 15,000 direct and 11,000 to 13,000 indirect jobs.
"The semiconductor industry is a foundation industry for the future. Chips are going to be part of everything we do in our daily lives, industrial life and consumer lives. Be it the electronics industry, automobiles, mobile technology, defence, healthcare, or other consumer products, everything will have a chip going forward, multiple chips, and this technology is fast progressing. With the adoption of artificial intelligence, all this will accelerate," Chandrasekaran told mediapersons.
He said every country is trying to get into this space.
"Globally, there are very few nations which have the capability. So India, under the visionary leadership of Narendra Modiji, took a very bold step and the Tata Group is extremely thankful and proud to be part of this initiative. We are building the entire electronics value chain. We have a big manufacturing facility as we call it EMS in South India, in Tamil Nadu near Bengaluru. Then we have the electronics assembly unit and packaging unit in Karnataka. Now we are creating this very advanced semiconductor assembly and test facility here in Assam. We are also putting a fab in Valera, Gujarat. Then we are also setting up a design house. With this, we will play in the entire value chain," he said.
In his speech, Chandrasekaran said the facility in Assam will create a semiconductor ecosystem.
"We already said that at its capacity it will produce or employ 27,000 people, 15,000 direct jobs and an additional 12,000 indirect jobs. But what it will additionally do is to bring the entire semiconductor ecosystem companies. We will need several people who will produce different components. And as we grow, while those people will initially start to supply, they will set up their units here," he said.
"And I see a big corridor and ecosystem of many, many companies developing here, which we will get to see in the coming years, and it will become a thriving electronics hub. The other thing is this industry is very innovation-driven. So it is an industry which is on the move. So you will see us investing. We hope sometime in 2025 we will be able to complete part of the facilities and quickly start our operations," he added.
The Assam Chief Minister said that as per the group's assessment, the unit will be completed within 18 months.
"Today bhoomi pujan was performed and at least within 18 months from today, this production unit will become effective, and it will come into operation. On behalf of the people of Assam, I would like to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others for this great initiative. They could have done this in any part of India, but they have chosen Assam. It is a huge landmark for the state of Assam," he said.
Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the plant will be very big and manufacture about 4.83 crore chips per day.
"The unique thing about this plant is that all the three major technologies which will be deployed in this plant are developed in India. The chips manufactured in this plant will be used in electric vehicles and practically every large company will be using these chips in the communication and network infrastructure," he said.
Officials said that the Programme for Development of Semiconductors and Display Manufacturing Ecosystem in India was notified in December 2021 with a total outlay of Rs 76,000 crore
In June 2023, the Union Cabinet approved the proposal of Micron for setting up a semiconductor unit in Sanand, Gujarat. Construction of this unit is progressing at a rapid pace.
The Union Cabinet approved the proposal for Tata's semiconductor unit in Morigaon, Assam, and two other units on February 29 this year.
The unit in Assam will be the site for the development of indigenous advanced semiconductor packaging technologies including flip chip and I-SIP (integrated system in package) technologies.
These technologies are extremely critical for key applications such as automotive (especially electric vehicles), communications, network infrastructure and others, officials said.
Nearly 85,000 industry-ready manpower at BTech, MTech and PhD level in semiconductor chip design area are being trained at 113 academic institutions across the country and nine of these are in the northeast region.
Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons will build the facility in Assam.
—ANI