Ahmedabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said India is building the entire electronics value chain, from products and components to semiconductors, as a roadmap to ‘Vikshit Bharat’. He commissioned CG Semiconductor’s outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) facility in Sanand, which he said will produce 20 million chips a year.“India’s youth will drive the AI, robotics and next-generation technology revolution with Indian chips,” PM Modi said. “The Sanand facility will produce 20 billion chips per year and we have set a target to increase production to 50 billion chips per year. “Commercial production of chip packaging has started at the country’s third semiconductor factory,” he said.He said the Semicon India program is gaining momentum “step by step, brick by brick, chip by chip”.As part of the dedication ceremony, the first commercial shipment of CG Semi was shipped from the Sanand OSAT facility to Japanese technology partner Renesas’ customers around the world.CG Power Chairman Velayan Subia said more than 75 experts from the Philippines, South Korea, the United States and Malaysia will work with Indian engineers to set up the facility, which meets Renesas’ global qualification standards. He said India needs to strengthen its advanced manufacturing capabilities to create jobs amid rapid adoption of artificial intelligence.Prime Minister Modi called the project a partnership between Indian, Japanese and Thai companies, saying it “represented technology, trust and partnership” and would accelerate India’s semiconductor ambitions.“A global industrial powerhouse was not built in a single factory,” Prime Minister Modi said.“Industrial powers are built around clusters. Places like America’s Silicon Valley, Taiwan’s Hsinchu Science Park and Japan’s Silicon Island demonstrate the importance of such clusters,” he said, adding that Sanand is now moving in just that direction.“In just a few months, Micron and CG Semi started production here. This means that a semiconductor cluster is forming in the country,” he added.Prime Minister Modi said India’s semiconductor drive is the next step in expanding electronics manufacturing. He said mobile phone production has increased 33 times since 2014, electronics production has increased nearly seven times and exports have increased about 11 times.“One industry spawns hundreds of other industries, which create hundreds of thousands of jobs and transform the economy of the entire region,” he said, adding that semiconductor clusters are also emerging in other parts of the country.“Our aim is to develop the entire ecosystem from chip design to manufacturing to packaging here in India,” the Prime Minister added.The Prime Minister highlighted job opportunities, saying the semiconductor and artificial intelligence sectors will create jobs across research, design, innovation and supply chains. He also praised the female engineers who trained at the Industrial Training Institute (ITI), including one who received semiconductor training in Malaysia before joining the Sanand facility.Prime Minister Modi said three semiconductor projects have started production within six months and reiterated that India offers policy stability, clarity of decision-making and speedy execution to global investors.Criticizing the previous UPA government, the chief minister said the vision he envisioned when he was chief minister of Gujarat more than two decades ago was realized in this inauguration. He said he had identified 300-400 acres near Gandhinagar for a semiconductor project and held talks with companies, but the proposal could not proceed under the then Union government.
