Vedanta-Foxconn Semiconductor Unit: Why Was Gujarat Chosen Over Maharashtra? Anil Agarwal Explains

Vedanta-Foxconn has signed two Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with the Government of Gujarat to set up a semiconductor fab unit

Vedanta-Foxconn, a joint entity between an oil-to-metals conglomerate, and a Taiwanese electronics manufacturing giant, has announced a total investment of Rs 1,54,000 crore to set up a semiconductor fab unit, a display fab unit, and a semiconductor assembling and testing unit in Ahmedabad district of Gujarat. Vedanta has signed two Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with the Government of Gujarat in order to enable this project.

With the issue recently taking a political turn, and questions being asked as to why Maharashtra was not chosen as a location to set-up the project, Anil Agarwal, Chairman, Vedanta Resources Limited Tok to his Twitter account to clear the air on the matter. Agarwal said that they had started this process about two years ago. “Vedanta-Foxconn has been professionally assessing site for a multi-billion dollar investment. This is a scientific and financial process which takes several years. We started this about 2 years ago,” he said.

Vedanta, with the aid of agencies, started to research on the states in India where this project could be set up. “Our team of internal and external professional agencies shortlisted few states which are Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu among others to help achieve our purpose. For last 2 years we have been engaging with each of these governments as well as central government and have received fantastic support,” added Agarwal.

Further to that, Agarwal said: “We decided Gujarat few months ago as they met our expectations. But in July meeting with Maharashtra leadership, they made a huge effort to outbid other states with competitive offer. We have to start in one place and based on professional andindependent advice we chose Gujarat. This multibillion dollar long-term investment will change the course of Indian electronics. We will create a pan-India ecosystem and are fully committed to investing in Maharashtra as well. Maharashtra will be our key to forward integration in our Gujarat JV.”