Odisha eyes chip fab, approves semiconductor policy

After decades of half-baked efforts, India is leaving no stone unturned to bring semiconductor ecosystem including chip manufacturing within the country. States too are chipping in with semiconductor policies to make this more lucrative. 

On July 21, the Odisha Cabinet approved Odisha Semiconductor Manufacturing & Fabless Policy to facilitate investors to enter into manufacturing of Semiconductor/Electronic Chips in Odisha. 

With this policy, the state aims to transform Odisha into a leading centre of semiconductor design and manufacturing.

The state is hopeful that under the policy, at least one semiconductor manufacturing unit and 100 fabless design companies will be set up in Odisha. The semiconductor ecosystem in Odisha is also expected to generate around 5000 direct employment and 20,000 indirect employments during the policy period of 7 years.

This development comes following the news that a UK-based company is planning to set up a semiconductor fabrication unit in Odisha's Ganjam district. And is expected to invest Rs 30,000 crore in the first phase. The SRAM & MRAM Technologies and Projects India Pvt Limited, the Indian unit of UK-based SRAM & MRAM Group, had also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state government on March 26 to set up the semiconductor unit in the state. 

Gujrat was the first state to introduce semiconductor policy and it already has investment commitments from Anil Agarwal led Vedanta for semiconductor fab and display fab, and from US chip maker Micron for a testing and packaging plant. In Micron’s case, it will get 50 percent incentive of the project cost from the centre and another 20 percent from Gujrat. For the $2.75 billion plant, Micron will be investing $825 million. Now Orisha becomes the third Indian state to introduce a semiconductor policy. 

Semicon India 2023

India is organising the second edition of Semicon India 2023, which is scheduled between July 28-30, 2023 in Gujarat's Gandhinagar. The conference will witness the presence of some of the world leaders from semiconductor ecosystem and focus on attracting investments and developing the semiconductor ecosystem in India. Ministry of Electronics and IT is also expected to give approval for a 40 nm semiconductor plant and compound fabs along with signing of some Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for building the semiconductor ecosystem in the country.

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