India's AI & Semiconductor Push Gets Policy Boost, First Chip Fab Soon

Highlighting the overwhelming response to the event, he said attendance at the Summit exceeded expectations and the energy in the room reflected strong global interest in India's AI and semiconductor ecosystem.

Tracing the policy foundation back to the National Policy on Electronics in 2012 and its acceleration after 2014, Krishnan emphasised that India has consistently focused on strengthening its hardware base.

"Ever since the national policy on electronics in 2012...post-2014 we have significantly attempted to add to our hardware progress," he said. Over the past decade, the country has expanded efforts across electronics manufacturing and semiconductor development.

Under the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), launched in 2022, 10 projects have been approved.

The first commercial-scale semiconductor production is expected to begin soon, perhaps later this month, with Micron set to start operations at its India facility.

"Maybe by the end of this month we should see the inauguration of the first of the 10 approved of (semiconductor) projects. Micron would be starting production at their facility in India - that would be the first commercial scale production of semiconductors in India," the Meity Secretary said.

Krishnan said that Micron would eventually work on High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), which is so important for AI and where there's such a shortage today. "Eventually they would be also working on high bandwidth memory, which is so important for AI."

While India has long been a hub for chip design, the current push marks a strategic move into manufacturing, he said.

The government has also announced Semiconductor Mission 2.0 in the Union Budget earlier this month, signaling continued and expanded support. A key objective under the next phase is to design AI-based chips for the country, he said.

On AI infrastructure, Krishnan outlined a distinctive policy approach. Rather than directly subsidizing AI data centers, the government is underwriting access to compute. Researchers, startups, MSMEs, and students can access AI compute at around Rs 65 per GPU hour, compared to global rates of between $2-$3 per GPU hour.

India is also encouraging private investment in data centers and AI-driven compute infrastructure. With "abundant renewable energy" and one of the world's largest power grids, the country aims to build green data center capacity at scale, serving both domestic and global markets.

"These are investments which will not be short-term," Krishnan said, stressing that the goal is to build enduring hardware capability to ensure "a sovereign AI offering."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will officially inaugurate India AI Impact Expo 2026 this evening.

The India AI Impact Expo 2026 is being held from February 16-20, alongside the India AI Impact Summit, at Bharat Mandapam. The Expo will serve as a national demonstration of AI in action, where policy meets practice, innovation meets scale, and technology meets the everyday citizen.

Spread across 10 arenas covering more than 70,000 square metres, the Expo will bring together global technology firms, startups, academia and research institutions, Union Ministries, State Governments, and international partners. The Expo will also feature 13 country pavilions, showcasing international collaboration in the AI ecosystem. These include pavilions from Australia, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Serbia, Estonia, Tajikistan, and Africa.

- ANI