The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared ₹1.27 lakh crore for the second edition of India Semiconductor Mission, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed.
“Cabinet has approved ISM 2.0 with a total outlay of ₹1.27 lakh crore,” Vaishnaw said.
Semiconductor Mission 2.0: What’s new
The new edition of the semiconductor programme will provide incentives to companies that supply raw materials, such as minerals and gases, used in chip manufacturing.
The minister said that the programme will focus on design, development and production of indigenous chips. “We will be self-reliant in the production of indigenous chips by the end of this programme.”
The new scheme has come at an appropriate time, as the world reels from a memory chip shortage and companies work to boost production capacity. It expects to attract investment from other chip segments to meet chip requirements for artificial intelligence devices.
For the first phase of the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM 1.0), the government had earmarked ₹76,000 crore. So far, it has approved 12 projects under the programme, attracting a combined investment of around ₹1.64 lakh crore.
The majority of the investment in the sector has come from domestic technology firm Tata Electronics and its semiconductor arm.
Cabinet approves 7 projects for ₹2.19 lakh crore
Apart from Semicon 2.0, the Cabinet also approved the Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme (MPMS) and the National Investment Policy for Urea-2026, along with infrastructure and railway projects. The total outlay of the approved projects stands at ₹2,19,353 crore. These include:
- A 6/4-lane elevated corridor along the River Varuna at a cost of ₹10,998 crore and a 6-lane elevated corridor along the River Ganga costing ₹14,448 crore.
- A Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme (MPMS) with an allocation of ₹62,500 crore. The scheme is one of the major manufacturing-related decisions announced alongside Semicon 2.0.
- The National Investment Policy for Urea-2026 aims to make India self-reliant in urea production. The decision is a policy approval and does not carry a financial allocation in the Cabinet decisions table.
- Two railway infrastructure projects. First, doubling of the Paradeep-Haridaspur railway line at a cost of ₹2,542 crore and fourth railway line between Dangoaposi and Rajkharsawan, involving an investment of ₹1,365 crore.
Vaishnaw said, “Seven major decisions were taken today. The first two decisions relate to a new approach to infrastructure development in Varanasi (Kashi). The third and fourth decisions are related to the approval of Semiconductor Mission 2.0 (Semicon 2.0). The fourth decision is the approval of the Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme. The fifth decision aims to make India self-reliant in urea production. For this, the National Investment Policy for Urea has been approved.”