Ashwini Vaishnaw Backs Odisha’s Semiconductor Potential as New Investments Line Up

18 Sep 2026, 09:28 by Vinay Kakkad · KalingaTV

New Delhi: India’s push to build a domestic chip ecosystem is increasingly looking toward the east coast, with Odisha positioned to secure fresh capital inflows as the country rolls out the next phase of its national semiconductor strategy.

Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw outlined this trajectory on Thursday during SEMICON India 2026, New Delhi. Addressing industry delegates, Vaishnaw projected substantial growth for Odisha within the sector, pointing to an imminent wave of new funding aimed at expanding the state’s manufacturing capabilities.

Central to Odisha’s emerging profile is specialized packaging. Vaishnaw pointed out that the state is already establishing a 3D packaging facility, anchoring its place within the country’s high-tech production network.

The state-level momentum forms part of a broader national initiative dubbed Semicon 2.0. According to the minister, this subsequent stage of India’s semiconductor roadmap targets complete value-chain integration through six core pillars:

Chip design
Equipment and materials
Additional fabrication plants (fabs)
Advanced packaging
Research and development
Talent cultivation

Drawing an analogy to microchip engineering, Vaishnaw via a tweet (X) explained the concept of “tape-out”—the exact technical phase where a completed circuit design is officially dispatched for manufacturing. In the semiconductor business, the moment a design achieves tape-out, development of the follow-up generation starts straight away.

India’s broader industrial ambition, Vaishnaw observed, functions on that exact discipline—treating every completed national objective not as a finish line, but as the immediate departure point for the next.