Gandhinagar, March 1
Gujarat intensified its push to attract investment in semiconductor manufacturing as Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel held a series of one-to-one meetings with domestic and international industry leaders on the sidelines of the SemiConnect Conference-2026 in Gandhinagar.
The two-day conference, organised by the state government's Department of Science and Technology under the theme "Gujarat - India's Gateway to Silicon", was inaugurated by the Chief Minister at Mahatma Mandir.
The event sought to promote strategic collaboration between global chipmakers and Indian industries.
During closed-door meetings, discussions centred on proposals to establish a semiconductor research and development centre, a memory module facility, power chip manufacturing units and speciality chemical plants in the state.
Officials present said deliberations focused on potential investments and the operational requirements for setting up these facilities in Gujarat.
Patel outlined what he described as the state's developing semiconductor ecosystem, referring to Dholera SIR and Sanand as emerging hubs for chip manufacturing and allied industries.
He also highlighted the government's approach to facilitating industrial projects through infrastructure and policy support.
Among those who met the Chief Minister were Meghav Mehta, Managing Director of Deepak Nitrite; Dato' Seri Lee Hung Loong, Chairman of Hotayi Electronic; Mokoto Terada, Managing Director of Suchi-ROHM Semicon, along with its founder Ashok Mehta; Rajeev Gautam of Horiba India; and Radhika Viswanathan, COO of Applied Materials.
Senior state officials including Chief Secretary M. K. Das, Additional Chief Secretary (Industries) Mamta Verma and Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Sanjeev Kumar were also present.
Speaking at the conference, Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of Micron Technology, described the inauguration of India's first semiconductor assembly and testing facility, 'Micron Pioneer', in Sanand as a historic moment.
The facility was inaugurated in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday.
Mehrotra said: "The project marked a significant step towards integrating India into the global semiconductor supply chain and had been undertaken with the cooperation of the Central and State governments."
He said Micron's focus in India would rest on five areas: security, sustainability, local presence, adoption of artificial intelligence and talent development.
"With demand for memory chips rising in the era of artificial intelligence, India was preparing to contribute to meeting global requirements through skill development and innovation," he added.
Dr Randhir Thakur, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Electronics, said India was moving beyond policy formulation to competing globally in manufacturing. "Electronics manufacturing in the country had expanded rapidly, with mobile phone production worth 70 billion US dollars recorded last year," he said.
Referring to the Semiconductor Mission, Thakur said Tata Electronics' application had been approved within 100 days with the cooperation of the Central and State Governments.
He said, "Dholera was emerging as India's 'Semicon City', with 7,000 people currently working on the company's project and around 20,000 jobs expected to be created in future."
He added that infrastructure including a four-lane highway, uninterrupted power supply and water supply had been developed in the region, and that advanced technologies such as lithography were being introduced with the support of experts from 16 countries and 300 employees from Taiwan.
- IANS
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