Isro eyeing new chip unit as more firms take to skies

India’s space agency plans to build an additional fab at Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL), its chip making facility in Chandigarh, in a bid to scale up capacity to meet the growing demand for chipsets for rockets and satellites as it opens up the space sector to private firms and startups.

The move by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) comes at a time when the government is looking to encourage global companies to set up semiconductor fabs to tap the local market.

India is poised to increase its share in the global manufacturing of mobile phones, IT hardware, automotive electronics, industrial electronics, medical electronics, Internet of Things and other devices in the near future as it aspires to set up $400 billion worth of electronics manufacturing by 2025,