Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday, 5 July 2026, shared remarks by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Sanand, Gujarat, highlighting the accelerating momentum of the Semicon India programme, India's flagship initiative to build a domestic semiconductor ecosystem.

Posting from Sanand, Vaishnaw quoted the Prime Minister's words: 'Step by step, Brick by brick, और अब chip by chip' ('Step by step, brick by brick, and now chip by chip'), framing the semiconductor push as a methodical, long-term national industrial project gathering speed.

Context

Sanand in Gujarat has emerged as a key node in India's electronics and semiconductor manufacturing geography, attracting significant investment commitments from domestic and international players. The Prime Minister's presence in the region signals continued political attention to the programme at the highest level. Vaishnaw, who holds the Electronics and Information Technology portfolio, has been the principal ministerial face of the semiconductor mission.

Policy backdrop

The India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), approved in December 2021 with an outlay of Rs 76,000 crore, offers financial incentives for fabrication, assembly, testing, marking and packaging units. The scheme operates under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and is designed to reduce India's near-total dependence on semiconductor imports, primarily from Taiwan, South Korea and China. The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for electronics and IT hardware, launched in 2020, was subsequently expanded to cover semiconductor components, layering further incentives for manufacturers.

India's approach mirrors industrial policies adopted by the United States, European Union and Japan since 2020, all of which have moved aggressively to onshore or friend-shore semiconductor supply chains following pandemic-era chip shortages that disrupted automotive, consumer electronics and defence sectors globally.

Stakeholders and impact

The primary beneficiaries of the Semicon India programme are electronics manufacturers, semiconductor design firms, and assembly, testing and packaging investors looking for incentive-backed locations. Gujarat has positioned itself as a frontrunner among Indian states, complemented by Assam and other states offering their own policy packages. A mature domestic semiconductor ecosystem would reduce India's import bill, create high-skill employment, and strengthen the country's strategic autonomy in critical technology supply chains.

For global chipmakers and their supply-chain partners, India's scale of incentives and its large domestic electronics market represent a meaningful alternative or complement to existing manufacturing hubs in East Asia.

What's next

Attention will now turn to the commissioning timelines of fabrication and packaging units already approved under the India Semiconductor Mission, as well as any new project announcements expected at forthcoming Semicon India conferences or investor summits. The Prime Minister's direct involvement in the programme's public communication underscores that semiconductor self-reliance remains a centrepiece of the government's Atmanirbhar Bharat agenda heading into the second half of the decade. Progress on ground-breaking and production milestones at Sanand and other designated sites will be the clearest measure of whether the programme's accelerating pace translates into installed capacity.