New Delhi, Sept 17: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said India is positioning itself as a reliable destination for advanced manufacturing as global industries look to build resilient and trusted supply chains.
Addressing the inauguration of SEMICON India 2026 at Yashobhoomi in New Delhi, Modi highlighted the country’s growing semiconductor ecosystem and said rapid advances in artificial intelligence are changing the way chip technologies are being developed.
He noted that the semiconductor industry is increasingly focusing not only on transistor size but also on areas such as system integration, memory architecture and thermal management to meet the rising computational demands of AI.The Prime Minister said India’s economic growth and increasing international confidence in the country were progressing together.
He cited India’s reported 7.8 per cent growth rate and the recent improvement in the country’s sovereign credit rating by a Japanese rating agency as indicators of this trend.Modi also highlighted the expansion of the India Semiconductor Mission, saying its second phase has increased the planned outlay to USD 13.5 billion, compared with USD 8 billion in the first phase.
According to the Prime Minister, 12 semiconductor projects have so far been approved, with further expansion expected under the next phase of the programme.He called for stronger collaboration between industry and researchers to accelerate the development of advanced technologies in India.
Modi also encouraged Indian researchers working overseas to contribute to the country’s technology ecosystem and urged industry leaders to increase investments in research and development.
Referring to the recently concluded BRICS Summit in New Delhi, the Prime Minister said the adoption of the New Delhi Declaration by consensus among member countries demonstrated international confidence in India’s role.Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said India had been seeking to establish a semiconductor industry for decades and that the sector had now entered a new phase of development.
Vaishnaw said Semicon 2.0 would focus on six broad areas, including semiconductor design, equipment and materials, memory technologies, silicon fabrication, compound and logic fabrication, and research and development.
He added that the government aims to support at least 200 startups and companies involved in chip design in India across different semiconductor applications.Minister of State for Electronics and IT Jitin Prasada, Electronics and IT Secretary S Krishnan, senior officials, industry representatives and international delegations attended the event.
SEMICON India 2026 is being held under the theme “Silicon to Systems: Building the Ecosystem.” The event has brought together more than 600 exhibitors, around 300 international companies and delegations from over 50 countries.
The exhibition includes country pavilions from Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore and Sweden, along with 12 state government pavilions and a dedicated startup pavilion.
The event brings together semiconductor and electronics companies, policymakers, investors, researchers, academic institutions, startups and students to discuss opportunities across the semiconductor value chain.
