Gujarat is emerging as a key hub for India’s semiconductor manufacturing and digital infrastructure, with a focus on sustainability and attracting major industry players amid ambitious growth policies.
Gujarat is positioning itself as a national centre for two linked ambitions: chipmaking and digital infrastructure. In an interview with The Indian Express, state minister Arjun Modhwadia said the government is trying to build a semiconductor ecosystem that can outlast incentives and attract long-term industrial investment, while also backing a new generation of data centres that rely heavily on green power.
The state’s semiconductor push has gathered pace since India’s post-pandemic drive to localise critical manufacturing. Modhwadia said the real challenge was not simply winning one large factory, but creating confidence among suppliers, skilled workers and financiers. Gujarat has leaned on logistics, port access, highways, airports and industrial corridors in Dholera and Sanand, together with a relatively strong power network. He said this ecosystem has already helped draw projects involving major executives who once built careers overseas and are now returning to India.
According to the minister, six of the 12 semiconductor manufacturing facilities being developed in India will be in Gujarat, with a combined project cost of more than Rs 1.28 lakh crore. Three have already moved into manufacturing, while Tata Electronics is building what he described as the country’s first commercial fabrication plant in Dholera with Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation. Two more facilities, including projects in Surat and Dholera, have also won approval under the India Semiconductor Mission. Reporting from industry sources in March and July showed that Sanand has already begun to establish itself in the sector, with Kaynes Semicon starting work there and CG Semi’s OSAT facility entering commercial operations.
The same industrial logic is now being applied to digital infrastructure. Gujarat’s Viksit Gujarat Data Centre Policy 2026-29 sets a target of 7.5GW of capacity and is designed to pull in hyperscale, colocation and artificial intelligence-ready facilities. The state says it has received 14 proposals worth more than Rs 10.36 lakh crore, with planned capacity close to 10GW. NewCities India reported in July that Dholera has been identified as the main hub, while PwC has said the policy is intended to make Gujarat a leading destination for secure, scalable and sustainable data centre investment. A separate industry summary noted that the policy includes a 51% green energy requirement, underlining the state’s effort to tie compute growth to renewable power.
Large companies including Reliance Industries, Torrent Power, Adani, Tata and Welspun Corp are among the investors showing interest, according to Modhwadia. He said demand already exceeds the capacity the state can currently allot, leaving the final decision to a high-powered committee. The minister also said the state government expects the broader ecosystem to receive a further lift from Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel’s recent overseas visit and the next Vibrant Gujarat summit, which has returned after a three-year gap.
Away from technology, Modhwadia devoted much of the interview to wildlife management and human-animal conflict, particularly around the Gir landscape. He argued that several recent attacks involving lions were linked to people approaching or provoking the animals, including with flashlights, shouting and attempts to take selfies. He pointed to a widely shared incident in Bhavnagar district in which a man survived after apparently staying still when confronted by a lion, describing it as an example of coexistence rather than confrontation.
The state’s response, he said, has been to add more local trackers, intensify public awareness and tighten controls at sensitive sites. At Mount Girnar, officials have introduced silent-zone rules, penalty provisions for disturbances, more checkposts and QR code-based entry and exit checks to manage crowd pressure. On cheetah reintroduction in Banni, he said the government is building grassland and prey habitat under the National Tiger Conservation Authority’s supervision, though the final decision rests with the NTCA. He also suggested that the state remains alert to fringe extremist groups trying to gain influence in tribal areas, but said such efforts do not take root for long.
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