Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Union Minister for Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnav said on Friday the first Made-in-India chip, used across multiple industries—particularly in IT, electronics, and communication—will hit the market by December 2024, bringing to fruition Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to develop a strong semiconductor industry in a short period.
Speaking to a news outlet on the sidelines of the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2024, at Davos, Switzerland, he said PM Modi launched a semiconductor policy in January 2022 to achieve fast results.
Vaishnav said representatives of this industry were surprised at the speed India is progressing on this front.
“The agreement with Macron was signed in June 2023, construction of the plant started in September 2023 and the first Made-in-India chip will be out in December 2024,” he said.
“The CEOs, investment bankers and semiconductor business heads are acknowledging these factors here at Davos, saying that India has developed a very strong semiconductor industry,” the minister said.
“They appreciated India’s semiconductor policy and the fact that PM Modi always stressed creating a comprehensive ecosystem. Not many countries have this kind of policy and therefore they could not get such success,” he said.
Vaishnav, who also holds the portfolios for Communications and Electronics, said the PM always focused on developing an ecosystem with a lot of talent.
“(The) MoUs (Memoranda of Understanding) with 104 universities are already in place, their course curriculum is being revised, and there is a lot of focus on design with a separate investment scheme.”
“Many design companies have got the benefit and they are gradually coming up in the value chain. All of this is getting appreciated a lot by companies from the world over,” he said.
Asked why developing this industry did not get much attention earlier, Vaishnaw said PM Modi’s thought process is always focused on a long-term vision, be it defense manufacturing, infrastructure investment, or reforms across sectors.
“He always thinks with a vision of at least 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, and 50 years. His idea is that anything being done today should yield results for many years for the country,” he added.
The minister said previous governments generally had a short-sightedness and they used to think from election to election.
Also, the clarity required in niti and neeyat (policy and motive) is there now. All of this is leading to the good work in India and the world is appreciating it,” he said.