Micron Chip factory in India
In Indian PM's recent visit to US, India signed a MoU (memorandum of understanding) with Micron for building a chip assembly factory in Indian state of Gujarat. The factory will create 5,000 direct and 15,000 indirect jobs in the state. The cost of factory is pegged at $2.75 Billion out of which Indian Govt will bear 70% of the net cost. This is due to India's subsidy program to nurture semiconductor industry in India as India has lagged far behind the global competitors like US, China, Taiwan, South Korea & Japan. In fact India is not even in the race as of now & previous efforts to nurture semiconductor industry have failed. The project is promoted as the first of its kind to develop first "make in India chips". The factory however, will not really manufacture the chips but only assemble & test the chips as the key part of chip manufacturing process (front end) will not be happening in India. One of the criticism of the project is that Indian Govt is