The chairman of the mining giant says the project will help fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of creating a robust manufacturing base in India. "It will also reduce our electronics imports and provide 1 lakh direct skilled jobs to our people...going from job seekers to job creators!".

Vedanta holds the majority of the equity in the JV, while Foxconn is the minority shareholder. Vedanta Chairman Anil Agarwal is the chairman of the JV company. The collaboration is the first JV in the electronics manufacturing space in India after the government’s policy announcement for electronics manufacturing and a PLI scheme for incentivising organisations to contribute toward the development of this sector.

Besides the JV, Vedanta Group already has two companies – Avanstrate Inc. and Sterlite Technologies – in the electronics and technology space.

To help drive more initiatives under the themes of Make in India and Digital India, the government, in its last budget, had pushed the total allocation to $936.2 million. Government policies including PLI, New Electronics Policy, 2019, Electronics Manufacturing Clusters, and Scheme for Promotion of manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS) are all being equipped to boost domestic design, manufacturing and assembly.

The Centre has also launched the Semicon India Programme, with a total outlay of ₹76,000 crore to develop the semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem. The scheme provides financial support to companies investing in semiconductors, display manufacturing and the design ecosystems.

India’s semiconductor component market is expected to rise manifold to touch the total revenue worth $300 billion during 2021-2026, joint research by the India Electronics & Semiconductor Association (IESA) and Counterpoint Research has revealed. The share of local sourcing is expected to grow to over 17% by 2026, which translates into a six-fold rise in locally-sourced semiconductor revenues.

Chip making in India

Vedanta-Foxconn picks Gujarat for ₹1.54 lakh cr chip plant