India Set to Launch Its First Homegrown Semiconductor Chip This Year: Ashwini Vaishnaw
The minister emphasized the strategic choice to target the 28–90 nm segment—chips commonly used in automotive, telecom, and industrial applications—which represents 60 per cent of the global market volume
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Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that the country's first indigenous semiconductor chip, built within the 28 to 90 nanometre range, will be launched before the end of the year. The declaration was made during the Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) Annual Business Summit.
"Today, six fabrication units are under construction. The rollout of the first Made in India chip is expected this year," Vaishnaw said. "We initiated this journey in 2022, and the progress has been steady."
The minister emphasized the strategic choice to target the 28–90 nm segment—chips commonly used in automotive, telecom, and industrial applications—which represents 60 per cent of the global market volume. "There are many people who criticised us for vying [for] semiconductor manufacturing. We targeted a particular segment, which has 60 per cent of market volume, using a targeted approach," he said.
Vaishnaw also pushed for a more balanced economic model that gives equal weight to manufacturing and services. "A lot of big economists want us to focus on services. Manufacturing and services are both equally important for next-level growth," he noted. "We should increase our work wherever we get opportunity. We should have our own IP, product, design and standards."
Turning to the transformative impact of Artificial Intelligence, Vaishnaw compared its current momentum to the revolutionary effect of the internet. "What internet did for the world, similar phenomenon would be brought forth from AI. We should be prepared for that change regardless of industry and sector," he said. He underscored the importance of culturally rooted AI systems, adding, "We need to have AI models that are trained on Indian culture, nuances, languages, social norms. One of the first such models is being developed by Sarvam."
Beyond technology, Vaishnaw, who also oversees the Railways portfolio, pointed to major achievements in freight logistics. "We have become the second largest cargo-carrying railway in the world. 1,612 million tonnes of cargo [were] carried, overtaking the US and Russia," he revealed.
Passenger services are also advancing steadily. "Our passenger carrying capacity has increased substantially. We have reached a level where dreams are being fulfilled and goals are being achieved," he said, calling on more industries to partner with the railways.
Highlighting the role of innovation, he concluded, "Our experiment of bringing startups into [the] railway sector was very successful. We are now bringing a new policy where we can test a new innovative idea and then scale it up based on the results."
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