Cabinet approves fifth semiconductor unit in India

The Union Cabinet on Monday approved a proposal by Kaynes Semicon to set up a semiconductor unit in Sanand, Gujarat, with an investment of ₹3,307 crore (US$394.15 million), electronics and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

This is the fifth semiconductor unit to be approved under the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), the second to be set up in Sanand. It brings the total investment to ₹1,52,307 crore (US$18.15 billion).

The government launched the ISM and the display manufacturing ecosystem with an outlay of ₹76,000 crore in December 2021.

The Kaynes Semicon ATMP (assembly, testing, marking and packaging) unit will be able to produce about 6 million chips a day which will be used in industries, automobile sector, electric vehicles, consumer electronics, telecom equipment, and mobile phones.

Raghu Panicker, the CEO of Kaynes Semicon, said that the new unit will be set up on a 47-50 acre facility in Sanand.

The purchase order for equipment will be released on Wednesday, Panicker said.

Kaynes Semicon is a wholly owned subsidiary of Karnataka-based electronics manufacturer Kaynes Technology.

 Last week, Panicker had announced that Singapore-based Lightspeed Photonics had become Kaynes Semicon’s first OSAT (outsourced semiconductor assembly and test) customer.

He said that the company had secured two more customers, one from the US and another from Taiwan, and the announcement will be made in the coming weeks.