The $2.75 billion semiconductor plant in Gujarat by the U.S.-headquartered Micron Technology, Inc. will have its groundbreaking on Saturday, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar told reporters on Friday. The progress on the plant “signals that there is a growth that is currently not visible but will soon manifest itself,” Mr. Chandrasekhar said.
The plant is being built with Union and State government subsidies amounting to 70% of the project cost. Mr. Chandrasekhar reiterated the government’s defence of these subsidies, reasoning that after 2026–27, when the Production-Linked Incentive schemes for various IT hardware and electronics manufacturing projects end, the industry may have well grown to be globally competitive.
“The difference with growing slowly and surely is that we’ll not be able to give you all these glitzy milestones,” Mr. Chandrasekhar warned, indicating that semiconductor manufacturing will take time to establish itself in India. “This is a foundational milestone for the growth” of the industry, he said of the Micron plant. IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had echoed Micron’s estimate that the plant should start output by December 2024.
