The Other Sixty Per Cent: Making A Semicon 2.0 Project Bankable Beyond The Subsidy

Semicon 2.0 widens India's support for semiconductors across the value chain, but it also asks investors to carry more of the risk themselves. For anyone committing capital, the real legal work lies not in securing the incentive but in protecting the share of the project that the incentive does not cover.

Under the first phase of the India Semiconductor Mission, the Central Government offered to bear up to half the eligible cost of a semiconductor fab. Under Semicon 2.0, notified in August 2026, the figure for a silicon fab is 40 per cent.

The difference looks modest on paper. However, it reflects a deliberate shift in policy. The Government has made clear that it now expects investors to have more "skin in the game", that it will not subsidise the cost of acquiring foreign technology, and that States should contribute land and infrastructure rather than look to the Centre. Days ago, Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran struck a similar note, observing that "we need to also see