Tata takes the lead in ₹1.26 tn chip plan

Two Tata group projects among three to win Cabinet approval

India’s chip-making ambitions took a giant leap on Thursday with the Centre greenlighting three projects worth ₹1.26 trillion, with the Tata group leading two of them. While Tata Electronics Pvt. Ltd (TEPL) will build India’s first semiconductor fab in Gujarat’s Dholera for ₹91,000 crore along with Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (PSMC), Tata Semiconductor Assembly and Test Pvt. Ltd (TSAT) will build an assembly, testing, marking and packaging (ATMP) plant in Assam’s Morigaon for ₹27,000 crore. Separately, CG Power Pvt. Ltd will build an ATMP unit in Gujarat’s Sanand at an investment of ₹7,600 crore, along with Japan’s Renesas Electronics.

A Union cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi cleared all three projects, bringing chip investments approved so far to around ₹1.5 trillion, including Micron’s ATMP plant cleared last June. Separately, the cabinet also okayed an incentive scheme for rooftop solar power with ₹75,000 crore outlay, set the stage for auctioning

critical minerals by fixing their royalty rates, and approved subsidy rates for the next sowing season.

Ground-breaking for all three semiconductor projects is expected in the next 100 days, IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, adding the Tata-PSMC fab may be ready in around two and a half years, producing around 3 billion chips a year across 28nm, 50nm, 55nm and 90nm nodes.

“The facilities combined will generate 1 lakh indirect jobs, and 26,000 direct jobs. A number of key component supply chain companies will also come to India, such as five key strategic companies that we