The Union government has sought more details regarding a proposal from an Israeli firm, Tower Semiconductor, to set up a semiconductor unit in India, a senior IT ministry official said on Monday, adding the proposal is currently being appraised.

“Tower has submitted a proposal but they have to provide a detailed proposal. As they provide details, we will examine those things. That is under appraisal. We have sought information from them,” Akash Tripathi, CEO of India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), said at a press conference.

The statement comes days after Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on September 5 announced that the state cabinet has already approved a ₹83,947 crore (US$10 billion) semiconductor unit by Tower Semiconductor and Adani Group in Panvel. In his post on X, the senior BJP leader had claimed that the proposed project would create 5,000 new jobs.

On Monday, Tripathi did not confirm whether Adani had also submitted a proposal or that Tower had partnered with Adani. A senior government official, however, told HT that Tower’s proposal was yet to be approved by the Centre. Neither of the two companies or the Centre has thus far acknowledged the statement from Fadnavis.

The arguably presumptive announcement by the Maharashtra government has been seen as a tactic geared towards the upcoming assembly elections in the state.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet nod for the Kaynes Semiconductor unit in Gujarat, which came through only on September 2, was delayed significantly because of the Lok Sabha polls that concluded in June, the senior official cited above said, declining to be named.

Tripathi said 20 more proposals are in the pipeline in the India Semiconductor Mission. “…they are proposals for display fabs, for compound semiconductors, OSATs and other things. We hope that in future also we will get more investment in this sector. We need to look at developing the whole ecosystem for semiconductors. Only fabs will not suffice. Only OSATs will not suffice. We have this inkling that we need to support all the ecosystem components,” he said.

Tripathi explained that each proposal undergoes a “thorough appraisal process” at multiple levels. Each proposal is judged on basis of the probability of its success, the technology partners it has, the technology it uses, financial model, its financial viability to invest in the project, as well as its probable and potential customers, he added.

Thus far, the Centre has approved five semiconductor unit proposals with a combined investment of ₹1,52,307 crore or US$18.15 billion. One of the projects approved in February 2024 — CG Power’s ATMP unit in Sanand, Gujarat, in partnership with Japan’s Renesas Electronics Corporation and Thailand’s Stars Microelectronics with an investment of ₹7,600 crore — will start producing chips by the second quarter of 2026, Tripathi said.

The CEO further said that since the inception of the semiconductor policy, the government has planned on supporting the industry for at least 10 years to help it mature. “Out of the funds we had allocated, a lot of it has been committed [to the five projects] so we need to expand and we are working on it. We have this vision of supporting this industry for at least 10 more years,” he said. Even after the industry matures, the government will continue to engage with the industry but the “nature of engagement may differ”.

The Centre is also planning to bring incentives for manufacturing of semiconductor ecosystem components under one umbrella in the Semicon India scheme, he said. Thus far, the components of semiconductor manufacturing were supported through the Scheme for the Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS), which ended on March 31, 2024.