India’s semiconductor ambitions have stepped into the spotlight once again, igniting a fierce political debate and spurring a flurry of industrial action as the country strives to establish itself as a global technology powerhouse. The recent exchanges between government leaders, opposition figures, and industry stakeholders reveal a complex history of missed opportunities, dramatic setbacks, and a renewed determination to seize the future.
The latest salvo came on August 14, 2025, when Union Minister for Railways, Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw publicly accused the Congress party of squandering critical moments in India’s semiconductor journey. According to ANI, Vaishnaw pointed to two pivotal episodes: the 1964 visit of Fairchild Semiconductor founder Robert Noyce, whose plans to set up a plant in India were thwarted by the Congress-led government’s notorious “licence-permit raj,” and the 2005–06 rejection of Intel’s proposal for a domestic unit—a casualty, Vaishnaw said, of “policy paralysis” during the UPA era.
“We had the talent, but not the vision or the will to act,” Vaishnaw wrote on X (formerly Twitter), underscoring his frustration with what he described as decades of lost potential. The minister’s remarks have reignited old wounds and prompted renewed scrutiny of the country’s semiconductor odyssey, especially as the world grapples with supply chain disruptions and the strategic importance of chip manufacturing has never been clearer.
At the heart of this debate is Mohali’s Semiconductor Complex Ltd (SCL), a facility whose story mirrors India’s own tumultuous relationship with the semiconductor industry. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day address on August 15, 2025, lamented that India had “lagged behind other nations by nearly six decades” in chip making. Modi’s critique was quickly countered by Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, who pointed out that the Mohali SCL factory had begun operations as early as 1983.
The BJP, however, was quick to respond, recalling a devastating 1989 fire that gutted the Mohali facility. According to The Tribune, BJP leaders, including Amit Malviya and Pradeep Bhandari, cited parliamentary records in which then minister-in-charge K.R. Narayanan admitted that the investigation into the fire remained inconclusive. Malviya described the incident as “the most tragic chapter in India’s technical history,” noting that the fire started at multiple points simultaneously, fueling suspicions of sabotage. “With it, India’s semiconductor dream went up in smoke,” Malviya said, adding that what followed was “decades of political neglect and bureaucratic apathy, with revival decisions and stalled funding.”
Despite these setbacks, the SCL’s early achievements were nothing short of remarkable. In 1984, the facility operated with a 5,000-nanometer process and advanced to 800 nm within a year or two—technologically on par with global leaders like Intel at the time. Back then, neither China nor Taiwan had yet entered the chip-fab arena. But the fire, and the years of inertia that followed, left India trailing behind as the world’s semiconductor giants surged ahead.
The narrative, however, is changing. Under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership, India is now rebooting its chip ambitions with a sense of urgency and purpose. “Semiconductors are among the hardest, most strategic industries to build. Progress has been made. Much more will follow,” the BJP declared, echoing the prime minister’s vision of a “technology-driven century.”
Concrete steps are already underway. India is constructing a 50,000-wafer-start-per-month fabrication facility, a significant leap from the current lab-scale operations at the Semiconductor Laboratory in Mohali. Six major semiconductor projects are in progress: one fabrication plant and five ATMP (assembly, testing, marking, and packaging) units. Just last week, four more projects received approval, including a silicon carbide fab and an advanced packaging ATMP plant, according to ANI.
Prime Minister Modi, in his Independence Day speech, announced that “Made-in-India” semiconductor chips would hit the market by the end of 2025. He called for a broader “swadeshi” push, urging the nation to embrace self-reliance not only in semiconductors but also in energy. “We still rely on other nations for much of our energy. To truly build a self-reliant India, we must achieve energy independence,” Modi said. He highlighted that solar power capacity has grown thirtyfold in the past eleven years and that ten new nuclear reactors were now operational. The government’s goal: to increase nuclear energy capacity tenfold by 2047, marking a century of Indian independence.
But technology is not built on ambition alone. The semiconductor manufacturing process is notoriously demanding, requiring ultra-high-purity chemicals for wafer fabrication procedures such as etching and cleaning. Historically, India has depended on Japanese and American imports for these specialist chemicals. That, too, is changing. According to a Bastion Research report cited by ANI, Indian chemical companies are stepping up in a big way. Tata Chemicals is expanding its production of high-purity chemicals specifically for semiconductor fab cleaning and etching, while Deepak Nitrite is producing essential etching and cleaning chemicals crucial for chip fabrication. These developments are pivotal, as they support India’s growing network of fabrication units and OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test) facilities, reducing reliance on foreign suppliers and bolstering the country’s bid for semiconductor independence.
“Indian chemical manufacturers are positioning themselves as essential contributors to the semiconductor supply chain infrastructure,” the Bastion Research report noted. This shift is seen as a strategic move, with chemical companies acknowledging the importance of domestic manufacturing capabilities for high-tech industries. The establishment of a robust domestic supply chain for semiconductor-grade materials is now viewed as vital to India’s larger ambitions.
While the government’s efforts have drawn praise from many quarters, the opposition continues to question the narrative of missed opportunities and delayed progress. Congress leaders argue that the groundwork for India’s semiconductor industry was laid decades ago, and that structural challenges—rather than political will alone—have hampered growth. The debate over the legacy of Mohali’s SCL and the broader trajectory of India’s chip sector is far from settled, with both sides invoking history to bolster their arguments.
What’s clear, though, is that the stakes have never been higher. As global trade uncertainty, supply chain disruptions, and geopolitical tensions intensify, the ability to manufacture semiconductors domestically has become a matter of national security and economic resilience. The government’s push for “Made-in-India” chips, coupled with the rapid development of supporting industries, suggests that the country is finally poised to realize a dream that has been decades in the making.
The road ahead will not be easy—semiconductors remain one of the most complex and capital-intensive sectors in the world. But with political will, industrial innovation, and a growing ecosystem of suppliers, India’s semiconductor story is being rewritten in real time.
The coming years will reveal whether these efforts will bear fruit, but the sense of possibility—and urgency—is unmistakable.
