First Made-in-India Chips to Hit Market by End of Year: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address on the 79th Independence Day, underscored the need for India to be self-reliant and innovative in its use of technology.

- AASHISH ARYAN & SHIVANI SHINDE

He emphasized that building digital sovereignty is essential to reduce dependence on foreign companies for tech services.

"Every nation, which mastered technology, scaled the heights of development, reached the pinnacle, and attained new dimensions of economic power," he said, urging the country to master critical technologies.

The PM highlighted India's progress in the semiconductor space. The first Made in India chip "manufactured in Bharat by the people of Bharat, will be available in the market" by the end of this year, he said.

"Today, we have freed ourselves from that burden and advanced the work on semiconductors in mission mode. Six different semiconductor units are taking shape on the ground, and we have already given the green signal to four new units," Modi said during his 103-minute speech, the longest in his ongoing tenure as the PM of the country.

Under the first phase of the India Semiconductor Mission with an outlay of ₹76,000, the government has so far approved 10 semiconductor chip fabrication and packaging units. In June 2023, the government approved a $2.75-billion project proposal by Micron to establish a semiconductor chip Assembly, Testing, Marking, and Packaging (ATMP) unit in Sanand, Gujarat.