**EDS: THIRD PARTY IMAGE** In this screengrab from a video posted on July 4, 2026, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inspects the CG Semi Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facility, in Sanand, Gujarat. (@NarendraModi/YT via PTI Photo)(PTI07_04_2026_000403B)
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More than 75 engineers packed their bags and relocated to Gujarat from the Philippines, South Korea, the United States and Malaysia to help build CG Semi’s ₹7,500-crore Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facility at Sanand. On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the plant, making it only the third semiconductor facility in India to commence commercial production in the past five months.On the shop floor, these engineers now work alongside young women from Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir and Kerala, many of whom had never stepped outside their villages before travelling to Malaysia for specialised semiconductor training.Together, they embody two ends of India’s semiconductor story—global expertise flowing into the country and a first-generation manufacturing workforce being trained to produce chips destined for markets across Japan, the United States and Europe. “Over 75 of our colleagues moved to Gujarat from the Philippines, South Korea, the United States and Malaysia. They came here not merely to build a factory but to help build India’s capability,” said Vellayan Subbiah, chairman of CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd, whose subsidiary CG Semi has developed the facility in partnership with Japan’s Renesas Electronics and Thailand’s Stars Microelectronics.For Subbiah, the project’s significance lies as much in capability-building as in manufacturing. “It is deeply symbolic that our first shipment is going to global customer Renesas Electronics, our Japanese partner,” he said. “Our partner Renesas taught us what being truly world class means. Their qualification standards were tough. Very tough. By meeting those standards, we not only earned the trust of our customers but also confidence in what advanced Indian manufacturing is capable of achieving,” he added.The chips packaged at the Sanand plant will find their way into automobiles, scooters and industrial equipment before being exported to Japan, the United States and Europe, Union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. The minister also highlighted the workforce behind the facility. “Daughters from Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir and Kerala will be working as operators at the plant. Some of them stepped out of their villages for the first time and went to Malaysia for training,” he said.Spread over 75,000 square feet, the newly inaugurated facility has the capacity to package about 300 million semiconductor units annually. Right next to it, a second plant spanning nearly one million square feet is already under construction and is expected to increase capacity to four billion units a year.For PM Modi, the plant is also evidence of a semiconductor ecosystem beginning to take shape. Within months of Micron Technology, Kaynes and now CG Semi commencing commercial production in Sanand, the region is beginning to resemble the manufacturing clusters that transformed countries such as Taiwan, South Korea and China. “Step by step, brick by brick and chip by chip, the Semicon India programme is catching pace,” the Prime Minister said, adding that semiconductor clusters eventually attract suppliers of chemicals, testing laboratories, equipment service companies, chip designers and startups.Modi said the back-to-back commissioning of semiconductor facilities by Micron, Kaynes Semicon and now CG Semi in Sanand marks the emergence of a semiconductor manufacturing cluster in India. Such clusters, he said, create a multiplier effect by attracting suppliers of specialty chemicals, testing laboratories, equipment maintenance companies, chip design firms and startups, gradually building an integrated semiconductor ecosystem rather than standalone manufacturing units. “Today chips are being packaged here; tomorrow specialised companies will come... This is the strength of a cluster,” he said.CG Semi’s facility adds to the rapid build-out of Gujarat’s semiconductor ecosystem under the India Semiconductor Mission. The state has secured six major semiconductor projects involving investments of about ₹1.24 lakh crore. Besides CG Semi, Micron Technology and Kaynes Semicon have already commenced commercial production at their OSAT facilities in Sanand, while Suchi Semicon’s pilot OSAT plant is operational in Surat. Tata Electronics is constructing India’s first commercial semiconductor fabrication (fab) facility at Dholera, and Crystal Matrix has received approval to set up the country’s first commercial mini and micro-LED display fabrication and packaging unit at Dholera SIR.Published on July 4, 2026
