India is propelling a benchmark initiative in the emerging technology ecosystem. Recently, as a part of the Digital India mission, the government unveiled a series of 12 projects worth Rs. 1.64 lakh crore to revolutionise sovereign semiconductor and Artificial Intelligence(AI) realm. The new initiatives are deemed as an upgraded version of the Digital India mission, after achieving the foundational gains from the past 10 years. The landmark initiative is aimed at seeking self-reliance in cutting-edge technologies and pitching India as a frontrunner in the global critical technology value chain.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology(MeitY) said that the projects march India decisively towards the frontier domains of Artificial Intelligence(AI) and semiconductors. The overarching aim of the projects is to build a comprehensive sovereign semiconductor value chain in the country from fabrication to packaging. This helps India gain strategic edge in the emerging technology and reduce dependence on imports, especially in an era when, technology, trade and critical supply chains are weaponised to seek hegemonic ambitions and geopolitical primacy.
Strong indigenous semiconductor and AI ecosystem helps India gain leverage in a technology which is fundamental and foundational to power the majority of other technologies from smartphones and Electric Vehicles(EVs) to military weapons & spacecrafts. MeitY directly linked the revolution in semiconductor and AI domain as a pivotal prelude to realise the vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047. As the Digital Public Infrastructure(DPI) has grown by leaps and bounds in terms of financial inclusion, digitisation of governance, expansion of data centres & broadband facilities in a cost-effective manner, the next goal is to gain edge in the frontier technologies that define the economic and developmental mileage of the country in the 21st century which is powered by fourth industrial revolution.
Thus, MeitY described semiconductors and AI not merely as a technology, but as strategic assets that can shape the future of India in the global supply chain & economic or geopolitical chessboard. Moreover, a solid domestic semiconductor and AI chain will not just create India’s technological revolution in the global map, but also generate thousands of skilled jobs in the country and attract foreign investment. With these projects India can potentially emerge as the credible, resilient and trusted global technology partner amid increasing transactionalism, great power competition & isolation of the critical technologies.
MeitY said that among the 12 approved semiconductor manufacturing units, one will be semiconductor fabrication unit, two will be compound semiconductor fabrication unit and nine will be testing & packaging units. Also, as a part of the India Semiconductor Mission 2.0, announced in the Union Budget 2026-27, semiconductor equipment, materials, indigenous intellectual property and supply chain resilience will be materialised. On the design side, 24 projects are being supported under the Design Linked Incentive Scheme, 105 companies have been assisted with advanced chip design tools and 23 design tapeouts have been completed at various foundries including at advanced nodes, the Ministry statement further added.
To realise the aforementioned technological goals, in the previous week, Union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw laid the foundation stones for electronics manufacturing projects worth around Rs 6,750 crore in Jewar, Uttar Pradesh. The move is aimed to catalyse India’s semiconductor and electronics ecosystem. At the centre of the projects is a shift from import dependence to domestic production of printed circuit boards or PCBs, which are critical components in electronic devices and are often described as the “brain” of the hardware chain.
Currently, India imports PCBs worth Rs. 40,000 crore per year. With domestic production, this import dependency will be drastically reduced, thus helping to save drift of the forex reserves. Moreover, these projects in UP, generate around 3,000 employment opportunities. Also, the advanced, state-of-the-art multi-layered PCBs built in India will be globally available, thus pitching India at the epicentre of the value chain.
The MeitY also underscored India’s scalable revolution in sovereign Artificial Intelligence apparatus. IndiaAI Mission has approved at an outlay of over Rs 10,372 crore. At its core is a shared compute facility comprising more than 45,000 GPUs intended to provide the computational backbone for national-scale AI research and deployment. The ministry also said that the AI foundation model pillar is supporting 15 large and small language models, while AI Kosh, the country’s AI data and model repository holds 12,500 datasets, 307 AI models and 20 toolkits.
GPU stands for Graphics Processing Unit, which is a specialized microchip designed to perform thousands of mathematical calculations simultaneously. Its massive parallel processing power makes it the backbone of Artificial Intelligence(AI) and allows it to train deep learning models and run AI tasks in seconds rather than months. India has thus invested in more than 45,000 GPUs, which yields overarching results in building a sovereign AI ecosystem.
With respect to AI governance, MeitY said that India is continuously striving to craft an inclusive, trustworthy and safe AI ecosystem blacked with sound AI policies & regulatory framework. In this direction, the AI Governance Guidelines released in November 2025, responsible AI model and data practices. It also aims for risk assessment and rendering solutions for AI applications across sectors such as healthcare, education, space, defence, agriculture, governance etc.
The recently held AI India Impact Summit, 2026 is the hallmark of the country’s AI initiatives. It brought together representatives from more than 100 countries and 20 international organisations to carve a responsible and inclusive AI path under the leadership of India. The summit revolutionised by India attracted ideas, huge investments and a resolve to craft a credible and fair AI ecosystem for the benefit of humanity.
