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.
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Science & Technology · SciTech0035
India Semiconductor Mission
Dec 2021
ISM 1.0 Approved
₹76,000 crore outlay, up to 50% fiscal support, run as an independent division inside Digital India Corporation.
28 Feb 2026
First Plant Goes Live
PM Modi inaugurates Micron’s ATMP facility in Sanand — the mission’s first operational plant.
Feb 2026 – Late 2026
ISM 2.0 & First Silicon
Cabinet approves ISM 2.0, ₹1.27 lakh crore. Tata-PSMC’s Dholera fab targets first silicon by late 2026.
4 Jul 2026
Third Plant, “A New Era”
PM Modi inaugurates CG Semi’s OSAT facility in Sanand — India’s third semiconductor plant in commercial production.
Packaging first, fabrication next
ATMP and OSAT plants opened first because they’re faster to build. The real test is Dholera’s actual wafer fabrication, a much harder technical step.
🏛️ Must Know
1. ISM 1.0 and Its Structure
- Approved The India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 1.0 was approved in December 2021, with an outlay of ₹76,000 crore under MeitY.
- Fiscal Support ISM offers up to 50% fiscal support to approved projects covering fabs, display manufacturing, and chip design.
- Governance It runs as an independent business division inside Digital India Corporation, with its own administrative and financial autonomy.
2. The Dholera Fab
- Partners Tata Electronics, partnered with Taiwan’s PSMC, is building India’s first commercial semiconductor fab, in Dholera, Gujarat.
- Target Nodes This fab targets 28nm-and-below chips, the kind used in cars, industrial controls, and everyday electronics, not cutting-edge processors.
🏘️ Good to Know
1. The First Operational Plants
- Micron ATMP Micron’s ATMP (assembly, test, marking, packaging) facility in Sanand, Gujarat, became the mission’s first operational plant.
- Kaynes OSAT Kaynes Semicon’s OSAT facility, also in Sanand, focuses on chip testing and packaging, with capacity for about 6 million chips a day.
2. Self-Sufficiency Targets
- 2029 / 2035 Targets India targets 70-75% self-sufficiency in domestic chip demand by 2029, and 3nm/2nm manufacturing capability by 2035.
- ISM 2.0 ISM 2.0 scales up the mission further, adding fresh funding beyond ISM 1.0’s original outlay.
Test Yourself
⚡ Great to Know
1. Named Plants Across States
- Four Plants CG 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.
2. Why the Approach Is Deliberate
- Real Test Moving 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.
- Mature Nodes Starting 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.
- Governance Housing 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.
📰 Current Affairs
1. Aheesa’s VIHAAN Chip (Aug 2026)
- 15 Aug 2026 Chennai-based Aheesa Digital Innovations achieved first-pass silicon success with “VIHAAN.” It is a broadband networking chip, built on the indigenous VEGA microprocessor. (Source: PIB)
- DLI Scheme Aheesa is backed by the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme. VIHAAN was taped out on Republic Day, and now targets production tape-out in 2027. (Source: PIB)
- Funding Aheesa raised about ₹40 crore from the Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Fund Management Corporation (TNIFMC) and other investors. DLI-backed companies have together raised over $100 million in VC funding, and achieved over 30 chip design tape-outs. (Source: PIB)
- Design Tools Government semiconductor programmes now give chip-design tools to 455 organisations. This includes 350 academic institutions and 105 startups. (Source: PIB)
2. CG Semi’s OSAT Plant (Jul 2026)
- 4 Jul 2026 PM Modi inaugurated the CG Semi Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facility, in Sanand, Gujarat. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said this marked a new era for India in semiconductors. (Source: PIB)
- Third Plant He called CG Semi the country’s third semiconductor plant to reach commercial production in 2026. This came after Micron’s plant (28 February) and a second plant (31 March). (Source: PIB)
- Build Timeline The CG Semi plant’s groundbreaking was on 13 March 2024, with an investment of over ₹7,600 crore. It was built in partnership with Renesas Electronics, Japan, and reached commercial production in just 27 months. (Source: PIB)
- Capacity The plant’s current capacity is 20 crore units a year. Its target is 500 crore units a year. Its chips serve automobiles, scooters, and industrial equipment domestically, and are also exported to Japan, the US, and Europe. (Source: PIB)
- Workforce The plant is also a story of workforce development. Young women from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, and Gujarat trained in Malaysia now work there as operators. (Source: PIB)
- National Tally As of July 2026, of the 12 semiconductor projects approved nationally, three are now in commercial production. Two more are expected soon, with five plants operational by the end of 2026. (Source: PIB)
3. Semicon 2.0 and ISM 1.0 Progress
- 15 Jul 2026 The Union Cabinet formally approved Semicon 2.0, with a total outlay of ₹1,27,500 crore. (Source: PIB)
- Six Pillars Semicon 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. (Source: PIB)
- ISM 1.0 Tally Under the earlier ISM 1.0, 12 manufacturing units have been approved, with over ₹1.64 lakh crore invested. Three companies, Micron, Kaynes, and CG Semi, are already in commercial production. (Source: PIB)
- Design Support Separately, 24 semiconductor design projects from start-ups and MSMEs have won financial support, and 105 start-ups now have access to industry-standard chip-design (EDA) tools. (Source: PIB)
4. Earlier 2026 Milestones
- 28 Feb 2026 PM Modi inaugurated Micron’s ATMP facility in Sanand, Gujarat, the mission’s first operational plant. (Source: All India Radio)
- May 2026 By May 2026, the central government had approved 13 semiconductor projects across 7 states, under ISM and the SPECS scheme. (Source: The Tribune)
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