The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday, 6 May 2025, approved two new semiconductor projects under the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), pushing the total number of approved projects under the mission to 12 with cumulative investments now reaching approximately ₹1.64 lakh crore. The two new facilities, to be set up in Gujarat, carry a combined investment of around ₹3,936 crore and are expected to generate employment for approximately 2,230 skilled professionals.

What the Two Projects Cover

The first project, to be developed by Crystal Matrix Limited in Dholera, Gujarat, will establish India's first commercial Mini/Micro-LED display facility based on Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology. The facility will focus on compound semiconductor fabrication and assembly, testing, marking, and packaging (ATMP), with GaN foundry services including epitaxy on six-inch wafers. The plant is projected to produce 72,000 square metres of display panels and 24,000 sets of RGB wafers annually.

Products from this facility are expected to serve a wide range of applications — from televisions, smartphones, and automotive displays to emerging technologies such as extended reality (XR) devices and smartwatches.

The second project has been approved for Suchi Semicon Private Limited, which will set up an Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facility in Surat, Gujarat. This unit will manufacture discrete semiconductors with a proposed production capacity of over 1,033 million chips per year, catering to sectors including power electronics, analog integrated circuits, automotive, industrial automation, and consumer electronics.

India's Semiconductor Mission: Where It Stands

With these two additions, the ISM portfolio has grown to 12 approved projects, collectively attracting investments of roughly ₹1.64 lakh crore. The government noted that several previously approved projects are already at different stages of implementation — two units have commenced commercial shipments, while two more are expected to begin operations in the near future.

Notably, India's semiconductor design ecosystem is also expanding, with infrastructure support extended to 315 academic institutions and 104 startups, signalling a broader push beyond manufacturing into indigenous chip design capability.

Strategic Significance for Make in India

The approvals mark a meaningful escalation in India's ambition to reduce dependence on imported chips — a vulnerability exposed sharply during the global semiconductor shortage of 2021–22, which disrupted automotive and consumer electronics production worldwide. India has since moved aggressively to attract both global chip majors and domestic players.

The choice of Dholera — a greenfield smart city and special investment region — and Surat, an established industrial hub, reflects a deliberate effort to build semiconductor clusters in Gujarat, which has emerged as a focal point of India's chip manufacturing strategy. Tata Electronics and Micron Technology have previously received ISM approvals for facilities in the same state.

What Comes Next

The government has indicated that these projects will complement India's growing strength in chip design and enhance domestic semiconductor capabilities across critical sectors. Industry observers will watch closely whether execution timelines hold, given that semiconductor fabrication facilities — particularly those involving compound semiconductors and GaN technology — demand highly specialised supply chains and technical talent that India is still scaling up. With cumulative ISM investments now crossing ₹1.64 lakh crore, the pace of on-ground commissioning will be the real measure of the mission's progress.