Certainty of policy, resource availability should be key focus areas for India’s semiconductor plan: Micron Technology EVP

Manish Bhatia, EVP, Global Operations, Micron Technology

Micron Technology’s executive vice president for global operations, Manish Bhatia on February 21 said India needs to focus on policy certainty and ensuring availability of resources. The computer storage chip maker is currently in the process of setting up its semiconductor plant in Gujarat, whose first phase is expected to be operational by early 2025.

Speaking at the Nasscom Technology and Leadership Forum (NTLF) 2024 in Mumbai, Bhatia said, “We can't have power drop for even a fraction of a second without having millions of dollars on a product that's at risk. So just think about the kind of resiliency that is required in the power infrastructure. Similarly, for water and how we manage our wastewater that comes from the processing, all of these things require logistics for the airports and the roads.”

“All of these things are much more challenging than residential requirements. That’s going to be more challenging than what's required for the data centres or others,” he added.

According to Bhatia, the other major focus area has to be certainty of policy. He highlighted many of the advantages that India has. The nation being democratic too is a benefit over other developing countries vying for some of these bug manufacturing investments, he said.

“Being able to take this semiconductor policy and creating certainty around it, for the Indian market and creating an export capable market, …is needed to attract more and more companies like Micron in our industry,” Bhatia added.

Bhatia explained that semiconductors are very capital intensive and needs more long-term clarity, adding, “Not just the manufacturers, but those in the value chain, whether it's our customers, suppliers, or specialty materials, specialty chemicals, services, engineering, support, design services -- all of these coming together -- they're going to want to have a predictability of policy, not just for the next five years, but for the next 25 years or beyond.

Taking a cue from countries like Korea, Taiwan and Japan who have a developed and thriving semiconductor ecosystem, Bhatia said, “It took 60 years to get to $500 billion in revenue in our industry, it's going to take 5 years, to get to the next $500 billion. I think India has a tremendous opportunity ahead of it to be able to create all of the factors that can make manufacturing successful over the next 5 to 20 years.

But it's going to take directed policy and alignment between all the stakeholders, whether that's central government, state governments, educational institutions…we need to be focused and wanting to have that capability.”

In June 2023, Micron announced that it is setting up a semiconductor assembly and test plant in Gujarat entailing atotal investment of $2.75 billion (around Rs 22,540 crore). The total cost of the plant comprises $825 million (around Rs 6,760 crore) from Micron and the rest from the government in two phases.

In January 2024, the company said it has already hired 200 people who are being trained at facilities in Malaysia and Mohali. And after the completion of both phases, it will create 5,000 jobs at the site.

This project is a part of the government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for semiconductor manufacturing in the country.