Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: India’s semiconductor programme is often reported as a list of announcements. The number that matters is much smaller and much harder to reach: how many approved plants are actually shipping product.
Twelve commercial semiconductor facilities have been approved under the India Semiconductor Mission, and three of them are operational as of this month. Approved investment across the mission stands at ₹1,65,685 crore, distributed across six states. India’s first fabrication plant — the Tata Electronics and Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation project at Dholera in Gujarat — remains under construction. The three units already producing are in the assembly, testing, marking and packaging tier rather than the wafer-fabrication tier, which is the sequence almost every semiconductor nation has followed: packaging first, fabrication after.
Packaging first, fabrication after: the three operational units sit in the assembly and packaging tier, the route almost every semiconductor nation has taken before its first fab.
A quarter of the approved facilities are producing. In an industry where a plant takes three to four years from approval to first output, that is roughly what a programme launched in 2021 should look like in 2026.
At a Glance
• Approved commercial facilities: 12 • operational: 3
• Approved investment: ₹1,65,685 crore across 6 states
• First fab: Tata–PSMC, Dholera, Gujarat — under construction
• Semicon 2.0: announced 15 July 2026
• Outlay: ₹1.275 lakh crore (about $13.23 billion)
• Semicon 2.0 scope: chip design, fabrication, display manufacturing, advanced packaging, equipment, specialty materials, R&D, engineering services, talent
The second phase of the programme is where the design of Indian policy has shifted most visibly. Semicon 2.0, announced on 15 July 2026 with an outlay of ₹1.275 lakh crore — about $13.23 billion — does not simply add money to fabrication. It spans chip design, fabrication, display manufacturing, advanced packaging, semiconductor equipment, specialty materials, research and development, engineering services and talent development. The inclusion of equipment and specialty materials is the significant addition. A fab that runs on imported photoresists, imported gases and imported tools is a plant, not an industry; the tiers underneath it are what turn a plant into a supply chain, and they are also where a mid-sized Indian firm can realistically compete.
The honest measure of this programme over the next two years will be the conversion of approvals into output, and the sensible thing is to say so before the number is flattering rather than after. Three of twelve is a quarter, and in an industry where a facility takes three to four years from approval to first product, a mission launched in 2021 producing at three sites in 2026 is broadly on schedule rather than behind it. What would strengthen public confidence is a published, plant-by-plant milestone calendar — ground-breaking, equipment installation, pilot line, commercial output — so that progress can be read from a table rather than inferred from announcements. India has committed ₹1,65,685 crore of approved investment and a further ₹1.275 lakh crore of policy support. A scoreboard is the cheapest thing left to add.
