Indian states look beyond incentives to drive semicon mission

Indian states are shifting their focus beyond just incentives to make it faster and easier for semiconductor companies to set up projects, with Gujarat, Assam, Odisha, and Karnataka offering ready land, quicker approvals, reliable power, and access to skilled talent.

Officials from the four states outlined these measures at a panel discussion at Semicon India 2026, highlighting how states are trying to remove infrastructure and approval bottlenecks as semiconductor projects move towards manufacturing.

Assam is looking to use Tata Electronics’ semiconductor assembly facility as a starting point to build a wider ecosystem around it. “By November or December, we will start production in Assam, in the Tata outsourced semiconductor assembly and test facility (OSAT). That shows how fast or how early things can be done in a particular state,” said J.B. Ekka, additional chief secretary, Government of Assam.


Ekka said the state allotted land to Tata immediately and placed the project under weekly monitoring, with reviews also held by the chief secretary and chief minister. Assam is now identifying land for other companies in the semiconductor ecosystem and planning a plug-and-play industrial park.

The focus on speed is also visible in Gujarat, which secured six of the 12 projects approved under the first phase of the India Semiconductor Mission. The state has created a dedicated mechanism to help companies navigate approvals and coordinate across departments.

“We have a very good institutional mechanism. As soon as this India Semiconductor Mission journey started, we started the Gujarat Semiconductor Electronics Mission,” said P. Bharti, secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of Gujarat.

Infrastructure is another key focus area for the states. Odisha said it has surplus power and water, three major seaports and an industrial power cost of about Rs 4.50 per unit after reimbursement.

“We are a power surplus state. We provide power to the national grid,” said Vishal Kumar Dev, additional chief secretary, Government of Odisha. The state has also announced a 1,000-acre technology park for semiconductor, data centre, and information technology (IT) services companies.

Karnataka, however, is relying on its existing industrial ecosystem and a single-window approval mechanism to reduce the time companies spend dealing with different departments. “Anything that any investor is interested in coming to, he will have to approach the single body which will facilitate and coordinate with all the departments and get the clearances done in a time-bound manner,” said Avinash Menon Rajendran, director, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Karnataka.

The states are also looking beyond land and infrastructure to the availability of talent. State of Gujarat is working with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and other institutions to train engineers, graduates, and diploma holders for semiconductor manufacturing and other parts of the value chain. Assam has also set up a centre of excellence at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati with Tata Semiconductor to develop relevant courses.