India is entering a decisive phase in its semiconductor and artificial intelligence ambitions, backed by sustained policy support, competitive compute pricing, and long-term investments aimed at building sovereign technological capabilities, Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, S. Krishnan, said on Monday.
Addressing the India AI Impact Summit, Krishnan said the response to the event had exceeded expectations, reflecting strong global interest in India’s growing AI and semiconductor ecosystem.
He traced the policy foundation for electronics manufacturing to the National Policy on Electronics introduced in 2012, noting that efforts accelerated after 2014 with a consistent focus on strengthening India’s hardware base. Over the past decade, the country has expanded initiatives across electronics manufacturing and semiconductor development.
Under the India Semiconductor Mission, launched in 2022, ten projects have been approved so far. Krishnan said the first commercial-scale semiconductor production is expected to begin shortly, with Micron set to start operations at its facility in India later this month.
He said Micron is expected to eventually work on High Bandwidth Memory, which is critical for artificial intelligence applications and currently faces global supply constraints.
While India has long been a global hub for chip design, Krishnan said the current phase marks a strategic shift towards semiconductor manufacturing.
He also noted that the government announced Semiconductor Mission 2.0 in the Union Budget earlier this month, signalling continued and expanded support. One of the key objectives of the next phase is the design of AI-based chips within the country.
On AI infrastructure, Krishnan outlined a policy approach focused on underwriting access to computing power rather than directly subsidising data centres. Researchers, startups, MSMEs and students can access AI compute at around Rs 65 per GPU hour, compared to global rates of two to three dollars per GPU hour.
He said India is also encouraging private investment in data centres and AI-driven compute infrastructure. With abundant renewable energy resources and one of the world’s largest power grids, the country aims to build green data centre capacity at scale for domestic and global use.
Krishnan emphasised that these investments are intended to be long-term, with the objective of building enduring hardware capability to ensure a sovereign AI ecosystem.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will officially inaugurate the India AI Impact Expo 2026 later this evening.
The India AI Impact Expo 2026 is being held from February 16 to 20 at Bharat Mandapam, alongside the India AI Impact Summit. The Expo will showcase practical applications of artificial intelligence, bringing together global technology firms, startups, academia, research institutions, Union Ministries, State Governments and international partners.
Spread across ten arenas covering over 70,000 square metres, the Expo will feature 13 country pavilions, highlighting international collaboration in the AI ecosystem. Participating countries include Australia, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Serbia, Estonia, Tajikistan and Africa.
-ANI
