US' Micron breaks ground for chip unit in Gujarat
Ajay Banerjee
New Delhi, September 23
Three months after US-based Micron, one of the world’s largest semiconductor companies, announced plans to build a new assembly and test facility in Gujarat, the company today “broke ground” at its site.
A joint statement by India and the US on June 22 after a bilateral between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden had mentioned the Micron plant. Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw today said India had embarked upon its journey to become a semiconductor hub. “India will soon need five lakh crore chips to meet the growing demand,” the minister said, adding that within three months of Prime Minister Modi meeting Sanjay Mehrotra, President and CEO of Micron Technology in the US, the company had started construction on its plant, which was unprecedented.
The project will come up in two phases and will entail an investment of $2.750 billion (approximately Rs 22,500 crore). India will make the majority funding while Micron will bring in the technology and reduce dependence of foreign sources, especially China.
Micron will invest $825 million (approximately Rs 6,600 crore). It will receive 50 per cent fiscal support for the total project cost from the Indian Government and incentives representing 20 per cent of the total project cost from Gujarat. This is under the Indian Government’s “Modified Assembly, Testing, Marking and Packaging Scheme”.
Micron’s new facility will focus on integrated circuit packages, memory modules and solid-state drives — all used in laptops, computers and smart phones.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT, said the country that had missed several opportunities for the past 70 years, this was a historic and epic moment.
