PM used to give hours when asked for 45 minutes to discuss semiconductors: Ashwini Vaishnaw

Minister for electronics and information technology Aswhini Vaishnaw at the Rising Bharat Summit on March 19.

IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on March 19 lauded the commitment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in giving a boost to India's semiconductor ecosystem and claimed that no other PM would have been able to do the same.

Speaking at the News18’s Rising Bharat Summit 2024, the minister said, "The commitment that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has shown towards the semiconductor is immense. Whenever we used to ask for 45 minutes of time from the PM to discuss semiconductors, the Prime Minister used to give us 3.5 hours of time."

During the meetings, the Prime Minister used to scrutinise each line related to semiconductors, the minister for electronics and information technology said. "He used to sit with every concerned departments, hold meetings and used to drive in to them that India has to be successful in the semiconductor ecosystem. This kind of commitment is impossible in any other prime minister," Vaishnaw said.

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Recently, the Union Cabinet approved three semiconductor plant proposals, two in Gujarat and one in Assam, for an estimated cost of Rs 1.26 lakh crore. These plants are in addition to a Rs 22,516-crore chip assembly plant being set up by US-based memory chip maker Micron.

The country will get its first Made-In-India chip by December, Vaishnaw said, as he criticised the previous Congress government for putting the manufacturing ecosystem in a "chokehold".

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"Congress has wasted India's first four decades. Because of Congress' policies manufacturing ecosystem was put in a chokehold. Laws were complicated as a spider's web (kanoono ka makar ka jaal banake rakha gaya) so that no one could take up manufacturing," he said.

"Before 1990, if you wanted to change the design of the handle of your car, you would have to take the government's permission. We have stepped out of this spider's web and now there has been simplification. The foundation to make India a manufacturing hub has been laid," he added.

Vaishnaw, who also holds the communication portfolio, said that India has exported 1 billion dollars in telecom manufacturing; 55 billion dollars in electronics manufacturing; 105 million dollars in electronics manufacturing and so on.