New Delhi: India will get its first semiconductor chip by December this year, said Union Minister of Railways, Communications and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday.
Speaking at an event of a media house, Vaishnaw said electronic manufacturing plays an important role for ‘Viksit Bharat’. As per the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to establish the country as a major destination for semiconductor industry, the first made-in-India chip will hit the market by December this year, he added.
On the Opposition’s allegation that the government has only set up chip assembly lines and has been falsely claiming to be manufacturing chips, he explained that semiconductor is a very complex market and whenever work to set up any industry begins, it undergoes a process.
“Every industry has its life cycle. If the Congress governments had started to work on it in 1980s, imagine where India would be right now. Congress wasted India’s first four decades,” he said.
“However, considering the pace of work of the present government, we think in next five years, we will be among the top five semiconductor nations in the world,” Vaishnaw added.