- Micron Technology Inc signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 28 June 2023 with the Gujarat government to establish a semiconductor unit in Sanand near Ahmedabad.
- The project aims to create a semiconductor Assembly, Test, Marking and Packaging (ATMP) facility on 93 acres of land in Sanand GIDC-II industrial estate.
- The facility will focus on transforming wafers into Ball Grid Array (BGA)-integrated circuit packages, memory modules, and solid-state drives.
- The project is expected to cost Rs 22,500 crore and create 5,000 direct jobs.
- The facility is targeted to be commissioned within 18 months.
- The MoU signing ceremony took place in the presence of Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, and Micron Technology senior vice-president Gursharan Singh.
- This is the second MoU signed by the Gujarat government with a semiconductor manufacturer. The first was signed with the Foxconn-Vedanta joint venture.
- The Gujarat government had earlier selected Dholera SIR as the location for the Foxconn-Vedanta unit, but formal approval from the Central government is still pending.
- Union Minister Vaishnaw emphasized the historic significance of this project and stated that it is a significant step towards India becoming self-reliant in manufacturing memory chips.
- India currently imports semiconductors worth Rs 3 lakh crore, including around Rs 1 lakh crore worth of memory cards. Micron is one of the major manufacturers of memory cards.
- The project is seen as India’s move towards achieving self-sufficiency (Aatma Nirbhar) in the production of memory chips.
Q.: Which company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Gujarat government in the Month of June 2023 to establish a semiconductor unit?
a) Intel
b) QUALCOMM
c) Micron Technology Inc
d) Samsung
c) Micron Technology Inc