Days before the Independence Day speech, the India Semiconductor Mission's account put the tally of projects at twelve under its first phase.
Also read: PM Modi delivers shortest Independence Day speech in 4 years.
His longest address was this In the pipeline Days before the Independence Day speech, the India Semiconductor Mission's account put the tally of projects at twelve under its first phase.
Why the second phase matters The India Semiconductor Mission's newly approved second phase, Semicon 2.0, is a different story.
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw showcases 'Made in India' semiconductor chips as he speaks during a cabinet briefing, in New Delhi, July 15, 2026.
From the ramparts of the Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday dedicated several minutes on a subject that would have been unthinkable in an Independence Day speech a decade ago – semiconductor chips. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi attends the inauguration of chipmaker CG Semi's OSAT (outsourced semiconductor assembly and testing) facility in Gujarat's Sanand on July 4, 2026. (AFP) PM Modi told the country that three semiconductor plants had already started operations, with their output headed for export, and that "another five to eight semiconductor plants are likely to become operational" in the years ahead. He then turned to critical minerals, noting that India had launched the National Critical Minerals Mission and announced the Critical Mineral Corridor, and that "nations around the world are increasingly placing their trust in India" on the subject. A look at the progress made by India and how far along these facilities are.
Days before the Independence Day speech, the India Semiconductor Mission's account put the tally of projects at twelve under its first phase. (Unsplash/ Representative)
What's operational? The three plants PM Modi was referring to are located in an industrial cluster in Sanand, Gujarat. They don't make the chips from scratch, they finish them. Micron Technology's $2.75 billion facility, inaugurated in February, packages and tests the DRAM and NAND memory chips that go into everything from phones to data centres, and has been shipping since earlier this year. Kaynes Semicon's plant went commercial on March 31, just fourteen months after breaking ground, and is scaling toward 6.3 million chips a day. CG Power's joint venture with Japan's Renesas and Thailand's Stars Microelectronics — the newest of the three — started commercial production on July 4.
In this screengrab from a video posted on July 4, 2026, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inspects the CG Semi Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facility, in Sanand, Gujarat. (@NarendraModi)
In industry parlance, this stage of the business is called OSAT, for outsourced semiconductor assembly and test, or ATMP in the language India's own scheme documents tend to prefer — assembly, testing, marking and packaging. The terms describe the same job: taking a finished silicon wafer, etched somewhere else, and cutting it, wiring it and boxing it into a chip that can actually be sold. It's manufacturing that is genuinely hard to execute at the pace Kaynes managed — fourteen months from groundbreaking to commercial shipment. But it stops short of chip fabrication. That process is harder and more capital-intensive as it involves building the transistors themselves onto raw silicon. Also read: PM Modi delivers shortest Independence Day speech in 4 years. His longest address was this In the pipeline Days before the Independence Day speech, the India Semiconductor Mission's account put the tally of projects at twelve under its first phase. Of this, three have reached commercial production. That leaves nine still working towards it, including Tata Electronics' wafer fabrication plant in Gujarat's Dholera, India's first genuine fab, where – according to Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw's statement – the first chip should roll out by December. Tata's separate assembly and test facility in Jagiroad, Assam, has not yet been commissioned yet. An HCL-Foxconn packaging unit at Jewar, near NCR's new airport in Gautam Budh Nagar, a silicon-carbide plant in Odisha, two more packaging facilities in Gujarat approved this May, and a newly cleared, not-yet-detailed project in Rajasthan – are in the works. So, five to eight of those nine projects becoming operational within seven or eight years would line up according to the Prime Minister's statement. Why the second phase matters The India Semiconductor Mission's newly approved second phase, Semicon 2.0, is a different story.
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw showcases 'Made in India' semiconductor chips as he speaks during a cabinet briefing, in New Delhi, July 15, 2026. (PTI)
