India used to import nearly every chip it consumed. That’s now changing fast — its first commercial chip fab is racing toward its first wafer, targeted for late 2026.
Timeline
From Approval to Production
2021-2026: ISM Approved, Micron Goes Live
- Dec 2021The India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 1.0 is approved, with an outlay of ₹76,000 crore under MeitY.
- 28 Feb 2026Micron’s ATMP facility in Sanand, Gujarat becomes the mission’s first operational plant.
Jul 2026: CG Semi’s OSAT Live, Semicon 2.0 Approved
- 4 Jul 2026CG Semi’s OSAT facility in Sanand becomes India’s third plant to reach commercial production.
- 15 Jul 2026The Union Cabinet approves Semicon 2.0, with a total outlay of ₹1,27,500 crore. It targets six pillars: design, machines and materials, more fabs, strengthening ATMP/OSAT, R&D, and talent development.
- Building OnSemicon 2.0 follows ISM 1.0’s 12 approved manufacturing units, worth over ₹1.64 lakh crore combined. Micron, Kaynes, and CG Semi have already begun commercial production.
Source: PIB, 15 Jul 2026
Must Know
ISM Structure and the Dholera Fab
ISM 1.0 Structure
- ApprovedThe India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 1.0 was approved in December 2021, with an outlay of ₹76,000 crore under MeitY. It offers up to 50% fiscal support to approved projects covering fabs, display manufacturing, and chip design.
The Dholera Fab
- PartnersTata Electronics, partnered with Taiwan’s PSMC, is building India’s first commercial semiconductor fab, in Dholera, Gujarat. This fab targets 28nm-and-below chips, the kind used in cars, industrial controls, and everyday electronics, not cutting-edge processors.
Good to Know
Operational Plants and Targets
The First Operational Plants
- Micron ATMPMicron’s ATMP (assembly, test, marking, packaging) facility in Sanand, Gujarat, became the mission’s first operational plant.
- Kaynes OSATKaynes Semicon’s OSAT facility, also in Sanand, focuses on chip testing and packaging, with capacity for about 6 million chips a day.
Self-Sufficiency Targets
- 2029 / 2035 TargetsIndia targets 70-75% self-sufficiency in domestic chip demand by 2029, and 3nm/2nm manufacturing capability by 2035. ISM 2.0 scales up the mission further, adding fresh funding beyond ISM 1.0’s original outlay.
Current Affairs
📰 Current Affairs
SiCSem's Second Odisha Unit Approved Under Falta SEZ
- 15 Sep 2026The Unit Approval Committee of Falta Special Economic Zone approved SiCSem Private Limited's second Odisha semiconductor unit, at IDCO Infovalley-II, Jatni Tahasil, Khordha district — the same district as SiCSem's existing compound-semiconductor fab.
- ScaleThe unit will make Silicon Carbide (SiC) Diodes and MOSFETs, on a proposed investment of ₹3,406 crore, with an expected 1,270 jobs and ₹7,043 crore in export turnover over five years.
- SourcePIB.
The VIHAAN Chip, and Semicon 2.0’s Six Pillars
- 15 Aug 2026Chennai-based Aheesa Digital Innovations achieved first-pass silicon success with “VIHAAN,” a broadband networking chip built on the indigenous VEGA microprocessor, backed by the Design Linked Incentive Scheme.
- VIHAAN SourcePIB.
- Semicon 2.0Semicon 2.0 rests on six pillars: chip design, machines and materials, more fabs, strengthening ATMP/OSAT units, R&D on advanced nodes, and talent development. Under ISM 1.0, 12 manufacturing units have been approved, with over ₹1.64 lakh crore invested.
- Semicon 2.0 SourcePIB.
✅ Test Yourself
Question 1 of 1
Great to Know
Fabrication and Governance Rationale
Named Plants Across States, and Why Fabrication Is the Real Test
- Four PlantsCG Power (with Renesas and STARS Microelectronics) runs an OSAT facility in Gujarat. Tata Semiconductor Assembly and Test sits at Jagiroad, Assam. The HCL-Foxconn joint venture, India Chip Pvt Ltd, sits in Uttar Pradesh, near Jewar Airport, not Madhya Pradesh as sometimes wrongly stated. SicSem’s compound-semiconductor fab sits at Jatni, near Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
- ReframeMoving from packaging-and-testing plants to an actual wafer fab is a materially harder step. Fabrication, not ATMP, is the real test of India’s chip ambitions.
Why Mature Nodes First, and the Governance Choice Behind ISM
- StrategyStarting with mature 28nm nodes rather than cutting-edge 2nm chips is deliberate. Most real demand, cars and appliances, needs mature nodes, not the bleeding edge.
- StructureHousing ISM inside Digital India Corporation, rather than as a normal ministry department, is a deliberate governance choice. It’s meant to move faster than typical bureaucracy allows.
- RelatedFor India’s broader indigenous-technology push, see SciTech0036 — Indigenous Technology Development and Make in India.
PYQ
Exam Point of View
Plant Locations Are the Recurring Trap
- QuestionUPSC CSP 2026 (Q83) asked which plant-location pair was wrongly matched, among CG Power/Gujarat, Tata Semiconductor/Assam, HCL-Foxconn/Madhya Pradesh, and SicSem/Odisha.
- WhyThe HCL-Foxconn joint venture is actually in Uttar Pradesh, near Jewar Airport, not Madhya Pradesh. Examiners test exact plant-state pairings precisely because they’re easy to mix up when several plants opened around the same time.
- LinkUPSC CSP 2026, GS Paper I, Q83.
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