India Announces ₹4,500-Crore Push to Modernise SCL Mohali, Rejects Privatisation Talk

The Government of India will invest ₹4,500 crore to upgrade and expand the Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL) in Mohali, reaffirming that the facility will not be privatised. The announcement came during a visit by the Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister and the Minister of State, who reviewed progress on ongoing modernisation work.

During the programme, 28 chips designed by students from 17 academic institutions were handed over. These designs were created using Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools provided under the Chips to Start-up (C2S) programme. With this, a total of 56 student-designed chips have now been fabricated at SCL.

The ministers also inaugurated the Semiconductor Process Gallery and the Abhyuthanam Training Block. The Process Gallery features a clean room lab equipped with earlier-generation fabrication tools, giving students a realistic experience of a semiconductor fabrication and ATMP facility. The new training block offers online and offline semiconductor ...