Headquartered at the country’s financial capital Mumbai, the Indian multinational mining company, Vedanta Limited picked PM Narendra Modi’s home-state Gujarat for its semiconductor project.
The company in its joint venture with Taiwan’s Foxconn is said to set up semiconductor plants worth USD 20 billion.
The western state of Gujarat has granted the company, the ‘financial and non-financial subsidies including on-capital expenditure and cheap electricity’ to build the semiconductor plants.
The semiconductor manufacturing process requires high-purity water, which is generally produced on-site from municipal water.
According to the sources, the project will include display and semiconductor facilities near Ahmedabad city.
While lobbying for incentives, Vedanta had sought 1,000 acres (405 hectares) of land free of cost on a 99-year lease, and water and power at concessionary and fixed prices for 20 years.
Meanwhile, the sources stated that spokesperson for Vedanta, Foxconn and senior officials from the state government and its S&T department refrained from making any further comments.
Indian states of Maharashtra, Telangana, and Karnataka had also been in the running to host the Vedanta-Foxconn’s mega project.
The sources also added- “An announcement is expected this week with a formal signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two parties, which is likely to be attended by the officials of Patel and Vedanta.
Earlier, Vedanta, along with Taiwan’s electronics manufacturer Foxconn had met Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis for a proposed USD 20 billion investment in a manufacturing facility for semiconductors that was expected to generate around 200,000 jobs.
But Gujarat had pipped Maharashtra to the post in the last leg of negotiations.
India’s semiconductor market is estimated to reach USD 63 billion by 2026 from USD 15 billion (2020), according to the sources.
Most of the world’s chip output is limited to a few countries like Taiwan and late entrant India is now actively luring companies to ‘usher’ in a new era in electronics manufacturing, as it seeks for ways to have seamless access to chips.
Vedanta, an oil-to-metals conglomerate, decided in February this year to diversify its endeavour into chip-manufacturing and had formed the joint venture with Foxconn.
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