India is set to sign deals for up to 2 mega units by October-November that will manufacture the silicon fab, apart from compound fab units, the government said.
"I am willing to tell you with reasonable confidence that before October or November this year, fabs will be approved. This will be fab manufacturing, the actual wafer fab," Chandrasekhar told TOI.
Global companies recently visited Gujarat for ‘Semicon India 2023’ to expand semiconductor production in India.
Companies will invest because of a strong demand curve for the precious commodity and as the country emerges as a trusted partner in the electronics ecosystem, said Chandrasekhar to TOI.
"Electronics in India is now reaching a critical mass, and the target that we have set out for is $300 billion by 2026. We are on track to achieve this... This would result in a massive need for semiconductors, which we estimate to touch $110 billion by 2029," said the minister.
With support from the Centre and Gujarat govt, the total investment in the factory will be $2.75 billion, Micron had said during Semicon India 2023.
"To have Micron - one of the world's largest semiconductor memory companies - as the first to invest in India, is a big achievement... We are confident that many more companies will now follow Micron's lead because they all know there is something called the first-mover advantage when coming to India,” said Chandrasekhar.
The minister is confident about leaving China behind in the semiconductor race with lower investments after getting favourable responses from companies.
"Just to give you a sense of the semiconductor intensity in electronics, China exports $900 billion worth of electronics but simultaneously needs to import almost $600 billion of semiconductors. They have spent $200 billion in the last 20 years on semiconductors and flopped. On the other hand, we are spending just $10 billion (India's semiconductor incentive package for investors) and we will be in a position to achieve what even bigger countries - who have spent 10 times more money - have not been able to achieve in over 20 years. We have a big opportunity, at least in semiconductors, to surge ahead of China," Chandrasekhar said to TOI.