India Semiconductor Mission: 13 Projects, First Chips, Next Up

Three years ago, India had no commercial semiconductor manufacturing footprint of any significance. As of mid-2026, the country operates its first memory-chip packaging plant, has a second ATMP facility approaching production readiness, is laying the foundations of a domestic logic fab, and has approved a pipeline of 13 projects — the 12th and 13th coming within the same fortnight in May. That is the compressed arc of what the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) and the SPECS scheme have managed since the Union Cabinet cleared the original ₹76,000-crore programme in December 2021.

None of this resolves India's structural chip-import problem overnight. The country still sources over 90 percent of its semiconductor demand from overseas, spending an estimated $150 billion on imports between FY17 and FY25 (Mitsui Global Strategic Studies Institute, Jan 2026). But the programme is past its first visible proof points, and a realistic look at what the next 18 months hold is now possible.

What Got Inaugurated on February 28

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Micron Technology's Semiconductor Assembly, Test, Marking and Packaging (ATMP) facility in Sanand, Gujarat, on February 28, 2026 — the first commercial semiconductor manufacturing unit to go live under ISM (DD News, Feb 28 2026).

The combined investment in the project is $2.75 billion, drawing from Micron's own capital alongside state and central government incentives. The facility converts DRAM and NAND flash wafers — fabricated at Micron's overseas fabs — into finished memory modules and storage products. It is not a wafer fab; it does not produce silicon from scratch. What it does is assemble, test, and pack memory chips destined for global customers. The first DRAM module shipped to Dell Technologies. Asus and Qualcomm are named among prospective customers.

Micron has stated that the Sanand plant will assemble and test tens of millions of chips through the remainder of 2026, scaling to hundreds of millions in 2027 as production ramps. At full capacity, the facility could handle roughly 10 percent of Micron's global output, using over 500,000 square feet of cleanroom space — one of the world's largest single-floor ATMP footprints (Swarajya Mag; TrendForce, Mar 2026).

13 Approved Projects, 7 States — The Full Count

As of May 18, 2026, the combined ISM and SPECS pipeline covers 13 projects across seven states. The first 12 sit under the ISM umbrella with combined committed investment of approximately ₹1.64 lakh crore ($19.8 billion). The 13th — Sahasra Semiconductors' ATMP unit in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan — is the first project cleared under MeitY's separate SPECS (Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors) framework, outside the main ISM list (India Briefing, May 2026).

Project	Location	Partner / Lead	Nodes / Type	Status	First silicon / production
Tata Electronics + PSMC Fab	Dholera, Gujarat	Powerchip Semiconductor (Taiwan)	28nm–110nm logic/analog	Under construction	Late 2026 (target)
Micron ATMP	Sanand, Gujarat	Micron Technology (US)	DRAM + NAND packaging	Operational	Feb 28 2026 (inaugurated)
TSAT (Tata Semiconductor Assembly & Test)	Jagiroad, Assam	Tata Electronics	OSAT / packaging	Construction; production targeted FY26	2026 (est.)
CG Power – CG Semi OSAT (G1)	Sanand, Gujarat	Renesas (Japan), Stars Microelectronics (Thailand)	Mixed-signal / automotive OSAT	G1 pilot commissioned Aug 2025; G2 under construction	G2 commercial: end-2026
Kaynes Semicon	Sanand, Gujarat	Kaynes Technology	OSAT packaging	Reached commercial production Mar 2026	Mar 2026
SiCSem	Bhubaneswar, Odisha	—	Silicon carbide fab	Approved; groundbreaking May 2026	TBD
3D Glass Solutions India	Odisha	—	Glass substrate / interposer packaging	Approved	TBD
CDIL (Continental Device India)	Mohali, Punjab	—	High-power discrete semiconductors	Approved; expansion of existing facility	TBD
India Chip (HCL-Foxconn JV)	Uttar Pradesh	HCL + Foxconn	ATMP / packaging	Approved	TBD
ASIP Technologies	Andhra Pradesh	—	System-in-package	Approved	TBD
Crystal Matrix	Dholera, Gujarat	—	Compound semiconductor (display / power)	Approved May 2026	TBD
Suchi Semicon	Surat, Gujarat	—	OSAT packaging	Approved May 2026	TBD
Sahasra Semiconductors (SPECS)	Bhiwadi, Rajasthan	—	Memory chip packaging (MicroSD, flash)	Operational — inaugurated May 15 2026	May 15 2026

Sources: ISM press releases; PIB ISM 2.0 release; Business Standard, May 2026.

The Tata-PSMC Fab: What 28nm Actually Does

The single most consequential project in the pipeline remains the Tata Electronics–Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC) logic fab at Dholera, Gujarat. The investment is stated at approximately ₹91,000 crore ($11 billion), with a planned monthly capacity of 50,000 wafers once fully ramped. Target process nodes run from 28nm to 110nm; the headline is 28nm. First silicon is targeted for late 2026, with full commercial ramp following over subsequent years (Tata Electronics press release).

Readers unfamiliar with node nomenclature sometimes assume smaller numbers are always better and that a 28nm fab is outdated. That framing misses the market. Roughly 80 percent of automotive semiconductors are manufactured at nodes of 28nm or wider — including the microcontrollers that govern engine management, transmission control, battery management in EVs, chassis safety systems, and body functions (Chips and Change). Renesas, for instance, produces its flagship RH850/U2C automotive MCU at 28nm. Display driver ICs for smartphone panels and monitors, power management chips for chargers and industrial equipment, motor-control ICs for appliances, and IoT microcontrollers for connected sensors — all of these are primarily made at mature nodes between 28nm and 180nm.

These are also the chips India's own industries need most in near-term volume. Indian automakers are accelerating EV platforms; the consumer electronics supply chain based around Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh runs on display drivers and power ICs; India's industrial and agricultural IoT buildout will consume MCUs by the millions.

What 28nm cannot do is run the latest AI accelerators, high-end mobile SoCs, or server CPUs. Those products, designed at 3nm and 2nm, require extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment that costs upward of $150 million per unit and takes years to qualify. TSMC, Samsung, and Intel Foundry are the only realistic providers of leading-edge logic for the foreseeable future. India's design-linked incentive (DLI) startups that need advanced process nodes currently tape out at TSMC — a sensible arrangement that avoids the multi-decade investment required to enter that race independently (Digitimes, Feb 2026).

Who Is Running the Mission

The India Semiconductor Mission is headed by Amitesh Kumar Sinha, Additional Secretary at MeitY, appointed as ISM's Chief Executive Officer. S. Krishnan is the Secretary of MeitY. At the February 2026 IESA Vision Summit in Bengaluru, Sinha described the mission's aim as building "a resilient, trusted, and future-ready supply chain that brings stability not just to one nation, but to the world" — a framing that tracks closely with the US-led effort to diversify semiconductor supply chains away from sole reliance on Taiwan.

ISM 2.0, announced in the Union Budget 2026-27, extends the programme's scope to semiconductor equipment and materials manufacturing, full-stack indigenous IP design, and supply chain diversification. The financial outlay for the Modified Programme covering semiconductor and display manufacturing for FY26-27 stands at ₹8,000 crore, with an additional ₹1,000 crore specifically for ISM 2.0 industry-led R&D and skilling (PIB, ISM 2.0 release).

The Jobs Picture — Promising Numbers, Real Caveats

The employment projections attached to the programme are large and carry the usual uncertainty of pre-production forecasts. The Tata-PSMC Dholera fab alone claims over 20,000 direct and indirect jobs at full ramp. TSAT in Assam projects over 25,000 direct and indirect positions. Micron Sanand targets 5,000 direct and 15,000 indirect roles. CG Semi expects more than 5,000 across its G1 and G2 facilities.

In aggregate, industry estimates suggest India could have 1 million semiconductor-related jobs by FY2026-27, rising to a long-term potential of several million as design, fabrication, ATMP, materials, and equipment supply chains build out (India Briefing workforce analysis).

The skill gap is the honest counterweight to those projections. India currently employs approximately 220,000 semiconductor professionals. A projected shortfall of 250,000 to 350,000 skilled workers by 2027 is documented across the value chain. The critical skill sets — process engineers, equipment technicians, yield-improvement specialists — require multi-year training pipelines that are only now being activated at the IITs and through industry-academia tie-ups under ISM 2.0.

Most of the 13 approved projects remain pre-production or early-production. Only Micron Sanand, Kaynes Semicon, CG Semi G1, and Sahasra Semiconductors Bhiwadi can currently claim operational status of any kind. The others are in construction, equipment installation, or process qualification phases. The employment numbers will accrue gradually, not in a single fiscal year.

What to Watch

• Tata-PSMC Dholera first silicon: The late 2026 target is the programme's most consequential near-term milestone. A slip into 2027 would not be unusual for a greenfield fab, but the date will be scrutinised closely by global foundry customers and by India's own fabless design community, which needs a domestic manufacturing option to reduce TSMC dependency.
• TSAT Jagiroad production start: Tata's Assam OSAT was expected to begin production in FY2025-26. Any update on commercial customer shipments — particularly for automotive or consumer chip lines — will indicate whether the facility can attract the high-volume orders that justify its 48 million chips-per-day capacity target.
• CG Semi G2 ramp: The G1 pilot line at Sanand has 0.5 million units per day capacity. The adjacent G2 plant targets 14.5 million per day and is scheduled for commissioning by end-2026. CG Semi is in active talks with European and US fabless companies to secure packaging orders; named customer wins would confirm that Indian OSAT is competitive on cost and quality with established hubs in Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand.
• ISM 2.0 design output: Seven DLI-scheme chip designs have been successfully fabricated at TSMC. The next metric is whether any of those designs reach production volumes with commercial customers — that would mark the transition from government-subsidised prototype to genuine market product.
• Skills pipeline: Watch for IIT-industry MoUs, the quantum of graduates entering ATMP and fab roles, and whether the wage benchmarks in Sanand and Jagiroad are sufficient to retain trained technicians. Workforce attrition is a known risk in semiconductor manufacturing globally and is untested in the Indian context.
• Compound semiconductor and SiC projects: The approvals for silicon carbide and glass substrate projects in Odisha are early-stage. India's EV sector will need SiC-based power modules in volume within two to three years; whether domestic SiC supply can be ready in time will determine how much import substitution is actually achievable in that segment.

India's semiconductor programme has moved, in three years, from policy paper to poured concrete and operational cleanrooms. The next 18 months will determine whether those first operational facilities can hold customers, ramp yields, and attract the downstream design activity that turns a manufacturing cluster into an ecosystem.