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Tata Electronics on Saturday began the construction of its Rs 27,000-crore chip assembly plant in Assam, which is expected to become operational next year and create 27,000 jobs initially.
The plant will produce 4.83 crore chips per day using indigenously-developed technologies.
The plant's Bhumi Pujan (foundation stone laying) ceremony was held at the project site at Jagiroad in Morigaon district in the presence of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran.
Speaking on the occasion, Chandrasekaran said the company has already employed 1,000 people from Assam and as the facility expands it will bring entire semiconductor ecosystem companies.
"At its capacity, it will employ 27,000 people, 15,000 direct jobs and additional 12,000 indirect jobs.
"We want to move fast. We are trying to accelerate the building of this factory.
"We hope sometime in 2025 we will be able to complete this facility and quickly start operations," Chandrasekaran said.
The project was approved by the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 29, 2024.
Union Electronics and IT minister Aswhini Vaishnaw on Saturday said that the construction of the plant has started within a short span of five months after the approval.
"It will manufacture about 4.83 crore chips per day.
"The unique thing about this plant is that all the three major technologies which will be deployed in this plant are developed in India," Vaishnaw said.
The minister said that the chips manufactured at the Tata plant will be used in vehicles, including electric vehicles, and practically every large company will be using their chips.
Vaishnaw said the communication and network infrastructure, every large company manufacturing 5G, routers etc. will be using these chips.
"Semiconductor is a foundational industry. Whenever a semiconductor unit comes there will be many more downstream employment which will get created and there will be many more upstream, because the ecosystem is so complex that a lot many units come the moment a mother unit comes," Vaishnaw said.
The minister further said that a major part of the India Semiconductor Mission is to develop 85,000 talent, and nine institutes in the northeast has started working on developing talent for the semiconductor industry.
He said NIT Silchar in Assam, NIT Mizoram, NIT Manipur, NIT Nagaland, NIT Tripura, NIT Agartala, NIT Sikkim, NIT Arunachal Pradesh and two institutes in Maghelaya -- North Eastern Hill University and NIT -- are involved in talent development for semiconductor industry.
"Our prime minister has always emphasized on "Act East" policy and very important milestone in our semiconductor programme has today been achieved in Assam, where the construction work on the semiconductor unit has started," Vaishnaw said.
Earlier in the day, state chief minister said it was a 'golden day' for the people of Assam as Bhumi pujan was performed.
The chief minister assured the chairman of Tata Sons that the company will face no difficulty in setting up this industry and the people of Assam will always be grateful for this facility.
"The setting up of this facility will herald industrial development in the state leading to employment opportunities for the youth', Sarma said after the Bhumi pujan.
He said that it was due to the initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union minister Vaishnaw that this facility became possible.
"They had assured us that if the Tatas are prepared to move one step, the Centre will move two steps to ensure the setting up of the facility in Assam," he said.
Even after decline in insurgency activities in the state, very few private companies were willing to invest in the state, but "I had approached Chandrasekaran, who was then the managing director of Tata Consultancy Services, to become a co-sponsor of the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT, Guwahati), and he had readily agreed," Sarma said.
Besides the semiconductor chip assembly and testing plant in Assam, Tata Electronics is also setting up India's first wafer fabrication unit in Dholera, Gujarat.
The plant will have the capacity to produce 50,000 wafers per month and involve an investment of Rs 91,000 crore.
The first chip from Tata's Dholera plant is expected to be out in December 2026.