New Delhi [India], May 26 : Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said the Tata semiconductor facility at Jagiroad in Assam will start manufacturing chips by the end of the current financial year, 2025-26.
Once operational, the Tata plant will produce a whopping 48 million chip units per day, the chief minister told ANI.
"We have given all the clearances. Activity has started at a huge and rapid pace. I think they will be ready by the end of this financial year," he said.
"They will be ready to produce the first chips, and Tata is going to produce 48 million chips per day. So I think it will cater to global demand as well as demand within the country," the chief minister added.
The Rs 27,000 Tata project was approved by the Union Cabinet on February 29, 2024, followed by a quick ground-breaking ceremony.
It is a greenfield facility for assembly and testing of semiconductor chips for applications across automotive, mobile devices, artificial intelligence (AI), and other key segments. Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons Pvt Ltd, is building it.
Semiconductor assembly and test is a critical part of the semiconductor value chain where wafers manufactured by semiconductor fabs are assembled or packaged and then tested before they are finally used in the desired product.
The proposed facility in Jagiroad is strategically located with access to abundant water and green power - a key sustainability consideration for the Tata group and its customers globally. Assam is also closer to the current semiconductor packaging & test hubs in countries like Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Singapore.
The state government is setting up an electronics manufacturing city around the Tata semiconductor plant named Ratan Tata Electronics Manufacturing City.
The semiconductor industry in India is still in a nascent stage, with various local and multinational companies intending to tap its vast potential. Chip shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic realised the importance of indigenous manufacturing to fill the deficiency, for national security and to galvanise indigenous innovation.
Works on five semiconductors are currently underway - four in Gujarat and one in Assam. The Union Cabinet this month approved a semiconductor manufacturing unit in Jewar, Uttar Pradesh, which will be India's sixth.
Separately, to boost its electronic components manufacturing ecosystem, the Assam government has decided to offer additional incentives to manufacturers willing to set up units in the northeastern state in addition to what the central government is offering.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters on Monday in New Delhi after a roundtable meeting with industry members that Assam's policy proposes to provide 60 per cent additional incentives to electronics components manufacturers, topping up the central government incentives.
"If the government of India, as per the government of India policy, if you are entitled to Rs 100, we will supplement that by another Rs 60... So we are not entering the nitty gritty of the policy because we are guided by the government of India's policy," CM Sarma said.
Besides monetary incentives, the Assam government will provide free land and reimburse the GST payments, the chief minister said.
The CM said his government has earmarked Rs 25,000 crore as incentives for semiconductor and electronic component manufacturers. In late March, the Union Cabinet approved the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme with a funding of Rs 22,919 crore to make India self-reliant in the electronics supply chain. Soon after the central government announced the electronics components manufacturing policy, Assam also released its own components manufacturing policy.
The CM underlined that any company intending to set up a components manufacturing unit in Assam would reap the benefits of three programmes - the central components manufacturing policy, Assam's components manufacturing policy, and the northeast India-focused UNNATI scheme.
The UNNATI scheme, officially named the Uttar Poorva Transformative Industrialisation Scheme, is a central sector scheme launched by the Indian government to promote industrialisation and employment in the North Eastern Region (NER).
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